Mell Balment

Transcript

I'm sitting in the dark at the back of the room it's the Australian professional speakers convention March 2020 and I'm trying to focus on my keynote Idol and what my associates around me didn't know was that my headscarf concealed every hair follicle prickling with pain being incinerated from within fighting for survival and my trepidation a few weeks later to shave the remaining 10% of my hair were very real I heard several breast cancer patients sharing their fears that they felt undesirable of losing their femininity of being single that no one would love them as they are Society has standards for women and if we fail

them it eats away at our self-esteem telling us that we are less than and leaving us lacking confidence often when we need it the most and we live in a world constantly telling us to look better than we do more booty less fat more eyelashes less wrinkles and more boob but what if you only have one very small boob and what about those with invisible scars or other disabilities that don't fit the Myriad of beauty criteria does this mean that they aren't glorious should they feel ashamed how do we embrace our uniqueness when we're listening to all this bleakness a year on I'm recovering from

my ectomy I proudly decided not to hide away even during the pandemic I'd be out and about wherever possible Smalling boldly to strangers feeling grateful that despite the nuclear poisoning my beautiful Chariot was still carrying me through this miraculous Voyage called life I was invited to participate in several photo shoots and acceptance to remind me of my most powerful Journey so far to remind me that even when I was sceletal with a scra fatigued body I never ever felt ugly or broken or afraid to be seen because my wonderful body contained my beautiful mind so how do we get to be at peace how did

I get to feel beautiful when I posed for these photos they captured more than how I looked with no apologies and meeting no Beauty criteria but my own they allowed my self-belief and glorious Essence to shine brightly whilst Tethered to a weak body it's been three years in total now I understand why they call it a journey but today I'm full of gratitude then my body is nearly strong enough to do a 10c blank before my diagnosis I used to loath the way my teeth and nose looked and what I learned from chemo apart from the freedom and power to not give a flying hoot

what others think of how I look is that I get one chance at this passage through life and you only get one body so can you please stop hating on it I beg you to stop comparing it to a set of St standards you didn't even get a vote on let alone agree to live up to today I'm publicly apologizing to my body for what I've put it through because it's the only thing that has loved me enough to fight for my survival so here I am now encouraging you to push back on society to let your glorious unique spark of love life radiate through

your thoughts from the inside out your body is only the delivery mechanism that tells of your Delight to show up unapologetically beautiful exactly as you are your beauty is your resilience it's your mindset and your self-belief and there is a place in the world for your beautiful desires how you look should have zero impact on your ability to deliver on your chosen beautiful actions and I'm proudly declaring that you are glorious beautiful as you are so when will you begin to accept you're more than just skin that it's what you have within thank you

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