I was in the throws of my first focus group for the production of Boudoir Ballet, and a dear friend of mine visited me for the weekend with her little boy. One morning, I was in my boudoir pondering life and caught him starring at himself in the full-length mirror. He was wearing a princess dress moving to and fro watching the skirt of the dress sway with a huge smile on his face. I asked him, "How do you feel?" He responded, "Pretty and fabulous!" I asked my Self, "What is your deal? Why don't you feel pretty and fabulous?" This sent me into a tailspin of self-defeating self-talk as to how and why I got to the place I was in: feeling beat up physically/emotionally and generally shitty about my Self and my body. I don't like to wallow in my misery for very long. I usually give myself 24 hours to cry it out and turn things around. So I got rid of my full-length mirror and created the Boudoir Ballet: 20 min. for 20 days. I worked on my body for 20 days straight which gave me a goal to focus on and other participants to hold me accountable. I altered my internal dialogue replacing negativity with hype even if I didn't believe it just yet. Per my dear friend's suggestion, I started to "add a little sparkle" to everything. So I started "playing dress up" by rocking my heels and dresses with more frequency and wearing make-up. It was amazing how working on my physical Self definitely altered my perception. I felt the transformation! I had been working so hard on my spiritual Self through my meditation practice that my physical Self had fallen by the wayside. Who knew that a little boy in a princess dress would be instrumental in turning my body positivity around! I gotta give it up to his fab mama for supporting him in his self-expression. What is so inspiring about this dynamic duo is that it doesn't matter to either one of them: gender, sexual orientation, societies' judgements, or "social norms." HE IS! As he stated to his grandparents once
that questioned him on his gender and his affinity for dresses, he responded confidently, "I AM FREE!" Isn't that what it is all about: being free, pretty and fabulous!!! So if you see a fabulous child and his equally fabulous mama prancing around San Francisco, tell them Auntie Luz says hi ;)
