I’m not perfect, and I want you to know I won’t try to convince you that I am. I get sick sometimes. I don’t always have a perfect diet or abundant, even energy. I’m not superhuman. But I try to be deeply rooted in my human body and humanity, which I think – in a world of illusion and disconnect – is a modern day superpower.
Maybe hearing I’m not perfect is a turnoff to you. But having been in the wellness space for over 2 decades, I’ve seen how damaging it is to women when people try to market to them by triggering their insecurities. I’ve seen women gripped by restriction, overexertion, obsession and fear about their health, their food and their bodies. I’ve been there too. And I know firsthand how damaging it can be to women’s physical, mental and emotional health to try to keep up with those standards.
Perfectionism is isolating.
Because the social nervous system is more attuned in women, we tend to be more impacted by the illusion of “perfection.” And when our culture is largely designed around accomplishment based on the more linear, dopamine-driveness reward system of the hormonally male body, it leaves so many women feeling overwhelmed, depleted and inferior.
Health isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being able to carry the expanse of life – the positive and the challenging – without being taken out by it. In fact, it’s about truly experiencing all of that as aliveness. Ayurveda means the knowledge of life – of how to be deeply alive in our body. It’s about how to be more human, and more humane. To feel it all and to carry the enormity of what it means to be in a body, walking this earth, warts and all. And how to carry that as a celebration of life itself.
I saw someone recently speak about how, with the explosion of AI, the most valuable commodity will be authenticity. So what does it mean to be authentic? We need to know ourselves, know our bodies, know our minds, in the deepest sense possible, and to be able to stand on a steady, rooted foundation and share the gift of that authenticity with the world, in whatever way we are meant to.
So, I’m not perfect. But I’m alive. And you are too.
Much love,
Courtney