Ashley-Ann Pereira

Transcript

I hate my legs I hate my curvy body why am I so ugly this was me when I was 10 years old when I was 16 and up until I was 20 years old it's safe to say I didn't always feel proud to be a woman I didn't always accept me for me when and if I looked at myself in the mirror it was always in disgust I longed to rock dresses and shorts but every time I went to the mall determined to find something to wear I leave even more disappointed each time just wishing and hoping that I could find something that I liked

and I felt good in I never did so I wore sweatpants jeans baggy sweaters and t-shirts all year round just to hide myself from my own insecurities and I just told everyone I'm a tomboy can you believe at the age of 10 I was already struggling with body image the first time I was able to look at myself in the mirror with a smile rather than disgust was when I was 20 years old for a long time at a young age I truly did not love myself I tried to repair my broken self by putting myself in a pageant where I had to wear a

bathing suit on stage I tried to repair myself by wearing bikinis even though I felt so uncomfortable my mind my body and my soul were not working as one my mind would pull me here and my body would pull me there and my soul would pull me here I was far from alignment and it's almost if you think of your car when its wheels are misaligned and it's pulling you all in different directions and you're forcing yourself to try and stay on track that's how I felt and I was just trying in all ways to repair myself and I just tried to and I thought

if I just fit into society standards and if everyone around me called me beautiful the mat was okay it wasn't okay I knew that what mattered was for me to think see and feel that I was beautiful and so it was time for me to change the conversation in my head it was time for me to shed that layer of clothing it was time for me to change the meaning of beautiful and so for me I realized it wasn't about what I saw in the mirror it was who I saw and I could finally see Ashley loving independent compassionate empathetic this is beautiful because this

comes from within and this is beautiful because this is me and I accept me unconditionally and if some were to act if you were to ask me tonight tomorrow or 10 years from now what my proudest moment is it won't be graduation or writing a book it will always be the moment that I looked at myself in the mirror with a smile on my face it will always be the time that I looked at myself in the mirror and said I am proud of you and it will always be the time that I looked at myself in the mirror and said I love you and

so for me from that day I had a mission a mission to help guide people to have that same moment a mission to remove labels like overweight skinny curvy from my world from our world and focus on unconditional self-love by looking within to focus on creating alignment between our mind our body and our soul and I realized that how I was able to do this was by being consciously aware of how I described myself to myself so I thought we could all try it out tonight so I invite you to repeat after me I am enough I am beautiful I am in love with me

tonight I declare that each and every one of us is body beautiful thank you

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.