All by Leah Gilbert
Modern society leaves us hard pressed to find more than a handful of hours a day when we are not exposed to something designed to make us question ourselves . We are mentally and emotionally tired, we are stressed, and we are over-exposed. But there are still a few places where they can’t touch us.
For some reason, many of us have terrible trouble in pursuing something that satisfies our individual interests outside our social roles as mothers, partners, daughters, wives (etc) without having some guilt about doing it
There is nothing too elegant about true exertion. We know this yet many of us have terrible trouble with our expectations around our race photos…Of all of the things that have the potential to ‘undo’ us, it’s the sight of ourselves.
Adventure reminds us that we are fierce, independent and self-sufficient. Adventure also takes us back to nature, and as women, our connection with nature is undeniable - we need it to ground ourselves, re-connect and re-set.
In following our hearts and souls out to the trails, to the mountains, to the ocean, or to the extremities of our capabilities, we are paving a new road of movement. We represent what happens when we tune into our authentic selves and say ‘yes’ to the adventures we are yearning for and when we show up in these spaces and be visible, we are proving what we already know, we can achieve anything.
Courage. Determination. Persistence. Resilience. These are all elements that contribute to our ability to climb that mountain, compete in that race, or complete that adventure. They are size-less, shape-less, simmer inside all of us and lead us to engage our limitless potential yet for many of us, the ability to execute those dreams is often thwarted by an inability to source the required technical clothing in our size.
As a Body Positive advocate Leah became one of the first Australian athletes to pose the prospect of inspiring people to improve their health by providing them with real, relatable role models.
It is hard to encapsulate in words what signing up for my first triathlon signified in the overall story of my life. In many ways, it was the epitome of my new, fearless approach to living. I had called off the war on my body and was fearlessly pursuing all the activities I had always wanted to do, but never felt were within my grasp; such as running, and above all, a triathlon.
Take one look in the media on any given day and everyone seems to be talking about ‘Body Positive’ of some form. As someone who has been working in the area of Body Positive Advocacy for some time now this is fantastic to see, but I am not doing my victory dance just yet.
