Sense of Soul - Embracing Your Divine Body

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

Today on Sense of Soul Podcast we have a beautiful and inspiring conversation with a leading voice and face in the fashion industry, she’s beautiful inside and out, Emme, the iconic world’s first curvy Supermodel. With the conviction that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, Emme has paved the way and given women the platform to feel beautiful and empowered. A TV personality, model, mom, author, brand spokesperson, creative director of her clothing lines, cancer survivor, lecturer and globally recognized women’s advocate for positive body image and self-esteem, Emme’s message is clear – to awaken the inner magnificence inherent in each of us, to be whole. She is the first model invited to speak before a Congressional subcommittee in Washington, D.C. with a mission to increase public awareness of eating and body image disorders. She’s the author of many books including, Chicken Soup For The Soul Curvy and Confident: 101 Stories of Loving Yourself and Your Body. She has twice been selected to People Magazine’s "50 Most Beautiful People" and Ladies’ Home Journal chose her as one of the "Most Important Women in America" and one of the "Most Fascinating Women of the Year."  She has also been honored as one of Glamour magazine’s "Women of the Year" and as one of Biography magazine’s “25 Most Influential Women”, Emme is the current past chair ambassador to The National Eating Disorders Association. If you or someone you know is struggling with disordered eating - call or text the National Eating Disorders Association at [phone]. For more information, please visit www.emmestyle.com and follow Emme at @theofficialemme Check out  FashionWithoutLimits.org Visit our website to learn more about us www.mysenseofsoul.com Join our Sense of Soul Patreon!! Our community of seekers and lightworkers who get exclusive workshops, live events like SOS Sacred Circles, ad free episodes and more. You can also listen to Mande’s mini series about her two NDE’s and Shanna’s Untangled mini series. Sign up today and help support our podcast. https://www.patreon.com/senseofsoul NEW!! SENSE OF SOUL’S NETWORK OF LIGHTWORKERS! Go check out our Affliates page, adding new amazing programs each month. Check it out! https://www.mysenseofsoul.com/sense-of-soul-affiliates-page  

Welcome to the Sense of Soul podcast. We are your hosts, Shanna and Mandy. Grab your coffee, open your mind, heart and soul. It's time to awaken. Today on Sense of Soul, we have a leading voice and face in the fashion industry. She is beautiful inside and out. Emmy, the iconic world's first curvy supermodel. Emmy has paved the way and given women a platform to feel beautiful and empowered. Not only is she a supermodel, but she's a mom, an author, a brand spokesperson, creative director of her own clothing line. And Emmy has even been selected twice in People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and many

other magazines have also named her Most Important Woman of America, one of the most fascinating women of the year, and as one of Biography Magazine's 25 Most Influential Women. Super excited to have her join us today. Welcome, Emmy. It's so great to have you with us. Hi, Shanna. Nice to meet you. Hi, Mandy. I'm Emmy. Good to see you. I love that name, Emmy. I don't know that I've ever,

you know, of course you hear Emma. So cute. Emmy reminds me of the Dragon Tales. That's right. My kids are fake. It's too funny. I really am happy to meet you both. And I appreciate what your mission is. And I appreciate the work that you're doing. It's really important. And I was just delighted that Bonnie was like, I think you'd really enjoy this podcast. So I've been looking forward to meeting you both and sharing heart centric things together. It's always great. Thank you. When you came across in the email, I had personally been talking to my daughter and some of her friends and then a good friend of mine who's struggling with just her looks and where she's at with aging and her weight. I thought what a perfect fit to have you on to talk about how to love and embrace yourself

and teach these younger generations that have so many odds against them with social media and comparing themselves to people to just take a moment and love this, this vehicle that the soul lies within. Yeah, me too. It's been on my mind. I mean, I sent Mandy and a friend this morning, I was reading a book and in it, it said that like back in Jesus day, if a woman even was raped, she could be killed, stoned, burned. It's not just in Jesus's time. It's hard to wrap my head around. And when, when I read that, I was like, wow, we are so lucky here in America, just over the past hundred years, you know, there's been a big shift for women. Yeah. In many ways we have a, we have some really important benchmarks about our being in control of our bodies that still need to happen.

And it's really important that we're aware of what needs to be done to be able to come together, that our bodies are our bodies, you know? Yeah. There's some work to be done. And so during the pandemic, I felt completely hands tied behind my back for the service that I love to do and the work that I actually do to put the roof over the head and food on our dinner table. I always do in-person connection. And I was brought up in a family where it's like, you know, you don't get too private with the things that you share. And I'm laughing because I'm crashing all those things. Obviously not too personal, but I all of a sudden turned on my Instagram feed at seven o'clock in the morning, every single morning for 90 days straight during the pandemic and did a little bit of reading, spirit, different books and different teachers that just were so inspiring. And then half an hour meditation.

And there was a group of people. At first, I didn't care who joined. I never cared. In the mornings, I still do it every Wednesday. It's at 7.30. It vacillates between seven o'clock, 7.30. But what I felt I needed as a woman, as a person that didn't have like a true sense of what was going on during pandemic, I needed to hook in to the thing that

I understood the most. And that was giving up control and truly getting into the heart and the seat of peace and calm. And it wasn't out there. I couldn't buy it. I couldn't obtain it. I had to tap in, tune in, turn on to the inner self. And something happened. I wasn't a coach before this. I went through, I was reading at the very end of the 90 days, literally we didn't miss a day. coaching certifications and all that getting into wellness.

And then really focusing in on the body image coaching that I found was utilized in many different places, CEOs of the household to entrepreneurs to C-suite up in business. So leadership was being called in to help with the way one held one's body in meetings and negotiating. And I found it was really, really interesting that what was so seemingly a female issue was universal. And through the act of going in and then engaging in a new and jumping into it at an area that I had no idea about, but I had been coaching in varying ways in the past and now fine tuning it with going into classes and then taking on my own clients, I found that the sense of spirituality, non-religion, but spirituality, getting into a quiet space was helping more than just the task at hand, getting more money at work or being a better negotiator or whatever it might be. And men and women, girls and boys, all were, are, are in a, in a place right now, all of us are in a place of how, how do, who am I

in this world of, you should be this, you should be that, you should be taller, you should be shorter, you should have a different, a different body this way, that way. So wait a minute. So who am I? And the answers are really not out there. They're here. And it's sometimes a difficult journey and you have to get, you know, when the pain of not changing is greater than the change itself and you keep on banging against that wall and you refuse to change. I will not do that. And then all of a sudden when you let go into it, and it's, it's, it's filled with ease. It feels better when you've created the space. So I don't.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Like amen to everything you just said. A women. A women. Yeah my gosh. Like amen to everything you just said. A women. A women. Exactly. I call that space just willingness. You know, that that's, we make it so much harder than it is. It's just being willing. whatever that willingness looks like for our listeners or for ourselves, willingness to just be willingness to open yourself a little bit more willingness to just maybe embrace change, willingness to look within it has to start with willingness. I already, I love you. Yeah. This has been like for the past, I'd say since like springtime, I've been so like overwhelmed and bombarded with all of these divine feminine,

you know, downloads, I guess. And they're coming from every which way. I've taken the deepest dive into the Gnostic Gospels that have really, truly opened my eyes to teachings of Jesus that he taught about women and about the feminine energy that have so hit my heart. Like you wouldn't believe and have opened me up to the wisdom. The Jesus energy is all about love. That's the energy he brought in. It's all about love, self love, love one another. It's beautiful. I have to go check out those Gnostic. Yeah, because they're all about feminine energy. That's why they were hidden and buried.

You cannot have creation with only a father God. Okay, you can't. It's impossible. Creation is about the unity of masculine and feminine. It is both. And it is a shame that these teachings of Jesus were not, you know, added to the teachings that he taught because he could have been for 2000 years learning about this. And so hitting me now in my late forties and going into my crone, my older, wiser self and receiving all of this

and connecting with this womb and this body for the first time is a shame. So I too, like you, and I know that you have a young adult daughter, one thought for my girls, for my boys, for them to connect with their body, it's so important. It is, as you had mentioned, Mandy, this is the vehicle that gives us the opportunity to feel a warm embrace, to feel the warm breeze across our face when we're walking outside, to taste the most succulent pears, to be able to go from here to there. It is not a vehicle to ignore. To feel this natural intuition, this connection between multidimensional being that we are, that we've never been taught to trust. Gwyneth Paltrow did a goop lab. And in one of them was them teaching women to look at their vaginas and mirrors and to embrace it and learn to like, know what it looks like and know the parts of it and know what it does.

And to be able to come to a place where you feel like it's okay to touch your breast or to learn about your own body. And it made me uncomfortable, but we're not taught that we're taught that that's sinful and that it's gross and weird. When I saw this beautiful series about this, I was like, yes. Right. Like, yeah. Yeah. That's not dirty. That is beautiful. It's so many beautiful ways to feel when you can feel free and that it's, we shouldn't wait for a partner, whether it's male, female, or a fluid in between folks to touch us there. We should be able to feel good, but no matter what it, we should feel the abundance. The body is this beautiful vessel that tells us turn danger. Perhaps if we're tuned in the solar plexus, you know, understanding somebody not feeling comfortable, somebody feeling they

need a hug. It's the most amazing gift that our soul is given to be on this earth. So why the conflict? There's some obvious reasons, but why are we put into a place of disconnect, dis-ease with living the life from the neck down as well, the whole body? Lots of money is based on disconnecting us so that we're always reaching. We're always grasping. We're always looking outside of ourselves to nourish and to fill and to please where we're really a one-stop shop. And then once we're the greatest one-stop shop, then that overflows into our family, our husbands, our wives, our partners, our children, our family, our, you know, our world.

The future. The future. And if we stay cut off and living only from the neck up, yes, we're making companies lots and lots of hundreds of billions of dollars based on 98% failure rate, just naming the diet related industry for one. Well, then that's short term. That's really short term for a few companies to gain. And we end up depressed, not connected, clearly suicidal, having problems with disconnection within the hearth. And I think we're at this place as women and a lot of men who are really wanting the best, feminist men that want the best for themselves and the women in their life

are starting to say, wait a minute, something's not adding up here. And so the coming together, I'm calling 2022 the year of the body. What do you guys think? I love it. I love it. Coming together, the soul and the body coming together and listening to one another and honoring one another so that we can honor others, but it has to start inside here. Well, I'll tell you what, it's a hard mission. And I think Shanna's on a mission that she knows that this is part of her purpose now too. I was in my daughter's room the other night with like six of her friends that are all just absolutely gorgeous. And they were 17 and 18. I witnessed

the most disturbing thing. One of their girls had taken a picture of herself and the girls getting ready and put it, I think on Snapchat or something. And her phone started blowing up. Well, it was her sorority girls that are, they pre-rushed them. So even though she's not at Alabama yet, she's already rushing for the sorority, even for her freshman year. So she puts them on speaker and they're like, you cannot wear that. You're not allowed to do this. You're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to do this. There were so many rules. Like this girl, my daughter's friend couldn't even just be herself. They were like laying down rules for her and how she has to be. So she hung up the phone and I said, who was that? I said, who was that? And she was like,

oh, those are, that's the sorority that I'm rushing for. And she's like, it makes me so angry. Like that. I can't just be me. And I was like, yeah, maybe, maybe, just maybe you should reconsider then. I said that was such a disturbing call, you know, I have to be in a sorority. I have to, I have to, I have to, I have to. And I said, no, you don't have to do any of that. And it made me so sad that these sororities literally are letting people in based on what their looks and what they wear and what they don't wear. And I was just so sad about it. And that's the generations that we're fighting. We're having to stand up with this mission and teach them that there's more than just this vessel. Very difficult for kids right now. There's such pressure. are leaving the nest, are going into spaces where the family units are basing value on the exterior,

on manipulation, on the herding of sameness instead of the celebration of diverse ideals of beauty. It's not an easy time right now because she's at a very, very important precipice of her identity and being one and being a part of a cohesive group. This is something I love about having all these girls at my house. It's her and her friends. And I'm able to just, you know,

pop in and not push it on them, but just, you know, say a few things that hopefully will help them to see there's always a choice. Right. You know, on the other side, I mean, I just think about like my little girl is in fourth grade and in two years, she'll be going to middle school and I'm terrified. And I really am considering putting her into like more of an art

school. She's a child that is more within, right? Everything is within with her. She's creative. She's very deep. She doesn't give a shit about being trendy. And so I worry about her too. Like you have like these two opposite sides of the spectrum of someone who may get fun of or not following the, yeah, who doesn't have FOMO. She really doesn't have FOMO. What she has is the desire to be within and create, and that's her personality. And so I, but I worry about her because of that. My daughter grew up and was teased and left the house and went into general population and had to manage a lot of stories like all of our children have to. And it was difficult. It was trying to play a little bit of the game over here and then vehemently standing strong and being like,

she's now involved in filmmaking and storytelling to highlight feminist stories highlight without it being sledged over the head but to allow a conversation to take place post viewing it's really faith in our kids that the emotional nutrients and the connection to oneself is a guiding post for anyone that is in your domicile, whether they admit it or not. I just have to believe that. And my journey was different than her journey. I have to honor that she has this journey where she is going to figure out, she is going to trip. She is going to trip. She is going to fall. She is going to bump up into resistance. She is also going to lead. She is also going to shine with voice, but this whole colophony of experience makes individuals either to rise or to stay quiet.

I have a feeling whether your daughter being an introvert and creative, the support that you give her is just going to help her blossom. And just being there as a source that is other than what they're getting on the outside is vitally important. I have kids from 24. My youngest is nine. And I have a daughter who is, she's a powerhouse. Okay. When it comes to owning her shit, she has always been, and she's confident. And guess what? For one time, her sitting next to her little sister. And this is when Ken's leave was like seven.

Yeah. About six or seven. And she said, oh my God, she was like, oh my God, I'm getting so fat or something like that. And my little girl, the little one puts her hand on her, her leg and goes, you are beautiful just the way you are, sissy. And I'm like, Oh, that's so, it just almost made me cry because it, you know, the way she sees her. And it's like, sometimes we can't see ourselves the way that the people who really truly love us can see ourselves because we are not loving ourselves like that. And that's one of the things that I think was one of my first awakenings was when I realized that I wasn't

like seeing myself as my loved ones saw me or my best friends saw me or my children, my little girls saw me. And, you know, I started listening to that voice and it was not nice. We use our bodies as a vehicle for self-flagellation, that it must be because of our bodies that everything is wrong in our life and a b c d e f g but but through understanding this work um it is the easiest place to lay blame if we don't feel secure to go deeper and to understand what truly is the root of it because it's definitely not our bodies the shape of our bodies the age of our, the shape of our bodies, the age of our bodies, the gender of our bodies. It's not about that. Sometimes we don't want to bring up difficult conversations to be able to address what's really going on. It's just

easier to blame. So restrict or abundance or whatever it might be or changing or going and getting whatever uh to alter our bodies but when we do that we find that the trend's going to change all of a sudden if we add a little tush that tush now has to be this way and that so always doing the exterior to, to, to keep the current trend. Yeah. You know, so when we beat ourselves up and we do whatever we do to ourselves to do that, I encourage any of the listeners to just to take a pause and just say, why not feel good and use that like a mantra? Why, why do we have to roll back and go living in the past of the things that might've happened in the past or live in the future where there's fear and, and where you're placing fear of like, you know, what happens if they don't like me? What

happens if my body's not the right way and using the body as a vehicle of value it's almost like we have to dismantle all this and rise up and say i am who i and what i am and that is perfect as it is and deal with the deeper issues that are popping up instead of always blaming our bodies for any infraction and really not being its best friend. My big, big push this year is connecting to a large variety of audiences. I have programs that I do and it's always about play, sweat, win and movement and not doing it for calorie burn, eating with just having a wonderful time when you're breaking bread with family, instead of feeling guilt or shame around that. And swiping, just changing, flipping the table over. And when you wake up in the morning, feeling your body in a way that is like, my buddy, thank you so much

for being here. I am so excited to live this day. Thank you for being my vehicle. We're talking granimals, step-by-step stuff to try and get people into what's really going on here? Basics, real basic stuff. It's helped me enormously to break it down. After years and years of dealing with this conversation, I will always be a work in progress. But when I start becoming more friendly and honoring the body that keeps pumping and it's unconditional love or unconditional workings if i if it just imagine if it was like you know what you weren't very nice to me i'm gonna stop pumping today yeah yeah don't feel like i only love you when you look at in those jeans you know love you no matter what and i I like to do tapping. I tap my whole body out and it just like awaits me. I tap all my chakras. I go from my feet all the way down my top.

And also we did mindful eating. And I tell you, I still, it'll still never go away because when you mindful eat, you almost cannot finish because you are so present with when you're full, you're so present what's happening. And so it's really, is that the intuitive eating practice? Yeah. It's just mindful eating just literally like, so you're feeling the food, how it feels as it goes in your mouth. You're thinking about where this came from, who picked it, who put it on the shelf. You're being grateful. Yeah. And they go down into your body how does it feel you know and all these things it's pretty amazing i mean what did you ask though i'm sorry what did

you ask if it was who or what was that last question intuitive intuitive eating into yeah evelyn triboli intuitive eating she is a master in talking about okay the the, it's her book, intuitive eating. I'm sure there's other books that she's, um, that I know that she has, she's a master at this. And, and there was one, one practice that she said, and I loved, um, M&Ms and I, I used to, um, overeat M&Ms, peanut M&Ms. And I would always feel so shameful about it. I was like, why am I doing this? And in her book, she said, listen, if that is your thing that you love, you need to have a big, huge jar, fill it all up with peanut M&Ms. And when it goes down a certain point, you need to fill it again. And I thought, how unusual is that? But when you give to yourself, it was food for

this particular example, but it started to filter into other things that when I did the nice things for myself, I had to always make sure that I was aware that my body needed certain things, more sleep or a nap. I would not take naps. I was like, oh, people are not busy enough if they're taking naps. Well, I got a newsflash. Taking a quick 15 minute nap because you're just really focusing or that you just are tired, whatever it might be, give what your body needs. And Evelyn is wonderful. She's really a master in all of this and dismantling our beliefs and the value that's put on the Superbowl. And I will tell you, it was really nice to see some full figured women out on that field at that halftime show. I don't know if other people noticed, but I sure did to see that there were people of all sizes, all shapes, all heights.

It was, it was great. Like, cause we're used to seeing just all skinny and tall or, you know, and so I don't know why I noticed it, but I, but I did. And it felt refreshing, just like it feels refreshing walking into JC Penney's right now and seeing some full figured mannequins for the first time. And many and target, they're all starting to really get away from their belief systems about their judgment over the body. And they understand who their customer is. Brilliant. Brilliant.

The test sticks. 100 million women above a size 14 in this country. You're not going to market to them. Please. Yeah. There's a problem in the fashion industry not, you know, being able to size correctly or whatever, or even have the clothes. I know. You know what?

I will fully disclose my judgment. One time, uh, American Eagle, a few years ago, came out with a woman who was not their norm. Everything about her was different. Her hair was like kind of colored. She was a thicker woman. And I thought they had made a mistake. Isn't that sad that my brain went there? I thought that it was wrong. No, you know, but look how you have a vehicle now that you're able to talk about and being vulnerable about your point of view. And no, this happened for a reason. It's so cool that you just said what you had to say.

And it was the page that it was on. It just- Everybody else was quote unquote normal. Normal is different than what we've been told all of our life and consuming. Actually, they all look like paper dolls and she was the only one that looked real. When I have discussions about um the ideal that's been in in de rigueur that we always see all the time no one's ever saying are these women healthy um are they are they taking good care of themselves

are the are the managers and the agents and everyone really looking after them as there's so much attention to women that are much larger? And I said, all of us together, whatever reflections of beauty, if we have more diverse reflections, hues of color of skin, sizes, ages, when we see more of ourselves reflected back, hopefully the ideals that are put in front of us are going to be more of that array and healthy as well so that they don't feel that they have to be size zero, six feet, if that's not their body structure. There's one or 2% that are that way. But do we have to make these young ladies from all over the world fit into a standard?

And there's, you know, there's such high standards for these ladies to restrict, restrict, restrict. So we've been brainwashed and it's up to us to be media watchdogs. Well, and also from the doctors, because, you know, I remember one time I went to the doctor and I thought I looked pretty good at the doctors. Because, you know, I remember one time I went to the doctor and I thought I looked pretty good at the time. And he was like, you know, you're really close to being obese. I'm like, what? And I was like, but really? Based on BMI?

I was literally, I think, 135 pounds. But do you know that word, right, triggered me right away? Like, oh, my God, I have to lose like 10 pounds immediately to stay under that. What? I was healthy. That's terrible. Not only that, but each one of your boobs weighs like 25 pounds a piece. I mean, did he consider that? Well, this is the problem with medical, the medical community that there there's not enough they're being told that bmi can be used for individuals but that is a population metric it is not meant for individual use and because there's nothing else replacing it correctly so this is what they use and just imagine young

little newblings in fifth and fourth grade being put through the same parameter that doesn't take into consideration bone density, muscle density, height, you know, they just put it all together. And these kids are feeling shamed at the get-go when they're being weighed in groups. It's just, anyway, it's using our voice, using our voice. Well, and I think it's a really important time in this episode to implement what I read on the email your agent sent over. It's why I think it's really important that we're having this talk that right now, because of COVID, I'm assuming in 2020, there was a study that showed that people gained about 25 pounds. I mean, I know that's a fact for myself. I know it's fact for her. So the New York Times

has reported that the weight loss industry is planning to capitalize on this. So we're going to see a whole bunch of crap come out about how we all need to get in shape and lose weight. And we're probably going to all start feeling shameful. Now I will say there's pros to cons to everything, because I do have some people that are saying, getting out of this COVID lockdown and the changes has been really hard for them to motivate themselves to get back to that life that we had before. But is that actually what we want? Do we actually want to go back to that life we had before? So I think it's important that our listeners know that we're about to get bombarded with advertisements and weight loss. And so it's a great time to talk about that. My daughter and I just watched that in the Marvel

world, Marvel universe, Thor was being made fun of with weight gain. And one of the other male characters were being made fun of weight gain. And I looked at my daughter. I said, that's kind of weird, you know, that it's now trickling to the men, especially the heroes of the film. And then, you know, I just said, it's great that we can have this discussion that that is odd like we didn't join in on the joke and we didn't join in like oh look at that look at this we just said oh that's not that doesn't jive really well for me so when we're just talking about the media watchdog with what you just shared Mandy we ourselves our family, when we're watching media,

when we're driving down the road, when we're listening to podcasts, if there's anything that sticks out and points the finger at another person to try and belittle, to rearrange how they should be looking, we don't have to expose ourselves to that. We don't have to open our purse and purchase clothing that reflects that. The power is in how we use our buying power. Because anytime that we put a purchase towards a product, towards an entertainment vehicle, towards a garment, if that company is not reflecting positive vibes, then we don't have to support it. And we pay for their salaries, all the whole entire company. So when we see that the diet related industry starts giving us a lot, they're making hundreds of billions of dollars based on a 98 percentage affiliate rate. If there was one diet that worked for everybody,

we wouldn't be having this conversation. Right. Yeah. Right. So when we think of hundreds of billions of dollars that are just being put, you know, we're paying and we're paying, we're paying because we want that quick fix. We want not to look within ourselves to say, okay, I need to change certain things, habitual, chronic things that I've been doing. And have I not been walking like on a regular basis, just walking. If you have a dog, would you ever keep your dog inside for two weeks, two months, four months? you'd never do that. So we have to think about how we see ourselves as valued individuals on this earth, terra firma, walking around, breathing air, contributing in the way

that we are. So what does our body need? You know, there's a podcast about a girl who moves from the US to Germany. and she does nothing different in her life. She's the same food as she always did and lost like 20 some pounds quickly. And so then she went on a journey to discover why that was. And what she discovered was that in Germany, most of the ingredients that are here in our foods are illegal in Germany. I know. And so it was just the fact that she wasn't eating all the extra shit. And I wish I knew because I think that I've talked about this a few times. And so I need to find out what podcast it is. We must become our own watchdogs, not only in the media, but I mean, okay, so personal care products, you want tampons bleached

with bleach, we have to ask, do we want shampoo that has wheat in it if we're gluten intolerant and our hair falls out? I mean, why is wheat in shampoo and conditioner anyway? But do we want to have fruits and vegetables that are high GMO and not organic? Why? In order to invest in our health and keep us out of the hospital, we must be able to either learn how to grow our own vegetables, do our own composting, and also support CSA, our own local farms. When we honor the body, we also honor what we expose

ourselves to and what we consume, because what we consume is what we get out. We have so much against us, but we have to literally read every label. Yes, we do. Oh, yes, we do. Yes, we do. And then guess what? Those people, those companies that are really elevating the conversation, they're going to get our business. So we get more of that. Okay. Yeah. I'm in agreement. You know, okay. All right. Well, it's taken us how many decades to get here. We now have the power of the purse. We're not going to

give them that much more of an opportunity to thrive. I need to just quit going to King Supers and go to like Whole Foods because the reality of it is it's like, as a mom, as with my life, this sounds like an excuse, but like, I got to get in and out. Can't sit and read them labels. I need a list or a store where I just know everything is going to be healthy. One that was shocking is that I watched a documentary talking about in the 50s, advertising and some of the based off of Sigmund Freud's theories of mind control and his studies of that. And it was actually his nephew who had these big companies and it was a tobacco company. The company went to him and he said, you know, how can I get women to smoke? Like men are totally against this and all this. They had all these beautiful women go out at the same time. They had

all of these reporters and photographers ready to film them. And they looked glamorous. They had all of these reporters and photographers ready to film them. And they looked glamorous. They had their long cigarettes and they called them their Liberty Sticks. And that was the title of the paper, these beautiful women and their long Liberty Sticks. And then from then on, whether it was Betty White, Audrey Hedburn, Marilyn Monroe, whoever you saw them as these beautiful women with their long liberty sticks, which was a very powerful statement for women. These same psychoanalysts and psychiatrists, the ones that study the brain, the mind, and why we do what we do, there's a group of them that get hired by these companies to figure out how do we

leverage. And so if that's going on and it is out there through this conversation, through your listeners hearing this, it is stop, look, and listen. And if it doesn't feel right here in the chest or underneath the solar plexus, if something is, I've got goosebumps telling you, sharing this with you, stop, look, and listen. We might need to change the way that we feel. And yes, it is another step, but it's liberating when you can choose what's right for your body, for your family's bodies. And listen, having a cookie, please, we're not talking any diets here.

Celebration of plum. That's great. Certain foods have certain density and certain ways that you don't want to have a lot of. You can have some of it, but predominance of life, sun-filled food to give us a sun-filled experience, lots of good energy, lots of great hydration. Are you drinking a lot of water out of plastic bottles? Or are you doing a distilling of your own water

if your water in your area is not good? Or are you drinking out of glass bottles? All these little things make a big difference. It's being mindful in the most incredible ways. It feeds your body, your soul, your mind. And then you can be, you can be calm and subtle where it's not like on sugar, way up here. I learned with my daughter early on that if there was any sugar after three o'clock, it would be incredibly hard to try and get her into bed at a normal, regular time that was on schedule. I know when I have too much coffee, it's hard for me to settle like a little kid into focused work and doing that kind of thing. So it's always being aware, not being,

ah, it doesn't matter. Oh, I'll try this. Oh, it doesn't matter. Well, it all matters when we're aware of what's going to make our life on this earth as easeful. Is that a word? I don't know if that's- It makes sense. I always say if it makes sense, it's a word. Okay. If it allows us to truly be in the present moment to feel the joy, aren't we supposed to be here to be more joyful? We don't have to add things into our life that are going to add more stress, more worry, more concern.

My goal, no matter what's going on, it's very hard. It is not easy right now, but I must have more joy. And it means sometimes for me to get up really early to get out for a walk, to do my meditation, to have my nourishment in the morning and the hydration, and then get going, take breaks throughout the day, and then to be with people that nourish me as well. So choosing friends and people that you want in your life, help with that journey. It's a balance of everything, isn't it? You guys, it's really work. It's constant work. And speaking of journey, you know, we got to go back. I love hearing people's story. I mean, clearly you you're awake, you've awakened, there was a there's a shift or have you always been like this is my first question. I mean, your journey. I mean, gosh, you've done so much the first full figured model to have a Revlon contract. I mean, let's just go back. Where did this modeling start for you? Because I think, you know, we'd love to stay in this realm where we can just talk about all this, like this spiritual stuff that we've been talking about, but, but I'm

sitting here listening to you speak your truth and, and I can feel it. And then I, and then my mind went to this place where for a long time, you were just getting photographed. Was your voice able to come out then? Or was it after that career that it came out? So it's a good question. I was a journalist. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Yeah, I worked for an NBC affiliate in Arizona. And I really thought my life was going to be, you know, doing different stops in different markets around the United States to get back to New York or LA. And I learned very early on that I couldn't sleep, even a very small town in Arizona with the news.

It just, it would keep me up. And I thought this might not be the right job, but I really love the vehicle of television. And I really felt comfortable. I was very curious. So when I moved back to New York, I literally fell into an opportunity. And all of a sudden, I realized that I shared, the more that I learned that my story was not different than so many other women and men that were communicating with me, showing up at the events. And it started to become very apparent that there was something bigger going on with the way that we were reflecting who we were, and it was not balanced at all. So in my campaigns, when I had runway shows,

or I had ad campaigns, I included the girlfriends that I loved in my agency and booked them so that we would reflect diversity. That when we walked in a runway show, whatever press was there to shoot it, we would see ourselves. And then the stories about what was beautiful and what wasn't. And, you know, the photographers having a hard time with always having one type of image to shoot. Now, like Revlon, I was shooting with Cindy Crawford and Halle Berry, love them both. They were putting me in the back trying to figure it because my average size,

5'11", size 14 was average in America. But when you put me next to what was classically seen as the ideal, it completely outed the system. So in honoring the journey of being on the scene in the nineties and reflecting my image, not, you know, I was very athletic and I didn't want to lose weight to be a size zero or a two. It just didn't make any sense and not one of my desires. But it's through these experiences, through these stories that I started writing books. I started doing my own clothing lines that were size 12 and above. And now today I want a clothing line from size zero up to 24, inclusive sizing or above. That would be amazing. from size zero up to 24, inclusive sizing or above. It's a collection of experiences that got me to really dedicating my life today. At 58, I'm going into the year of the body in 2022,

forming my nonprofit, the True Beauty Foundation, and working with agencies to promote better mental health to our children and young adults. I'm really excited to see some CEOs or some C-suite within the VIP groups that are going, what is going on? This is a different game here. I go, yep. Yes, it is. I said, by embracing inclusivity, you free your soul. You really do. You free all the chains that even women that are much smaller are the women that are below a size 12 are the ones that fuel the diet related industries that are making hundreds of billions of dollars on a 98 percentage failure rate. So it's even the ideals that are struggling to just hold on. So it's like, please, you know, we need to almost get to ground zero and figure out what's good for ourselves, what's good for our families and find companies that align with that. And they're popping up. Have you always had this confidence within you or, and if it's off limits, please just, you know,

I always respect people's boundaries, but what did that feel like knowing that you were being put behind Cindy Crawford and Halle Berry for a reason? So the situation with Revlon, I was very happy to be at the show, the opportunity. And there was a lot of like knowing that just being in the game and in the opportunity was a great opportunity. And I was absolutely using my voice along the way. And there are some strange things that would happen. When I was younger, I wasn't able to tell, for example, when I was really hungry with my stepfather, my mother had to go ask my stepfather for seconds, which was very strange. You know,

when you look back on that, there was such a sense of control and fear around the body that the body was going to disappoint and to be wild and crazy on its own, instead of empowering me to be in union with my body as a young person, that I and my body are partners throughout this life, that when I hydrate, when I sleep well, when I have really great choices with food, and yes, you can definitely feel the difference when you don't have the right choices, but are you going to do that every day? Are you going to do that every once in a while? The partnership part, I was in conflict. And so I fell into disordered eating where it was not having enough, having too much, having body image issues. And that's when I went in and I was traveling know, I was traveling around the world, doing incredible, staying in beautiful places, making good money. And I kept on thinking,

why am I beating myself up when I'm alone? Like I'm doing incredible things. So I went into therapy and back in the nineties, not a lot of therapists were really aware of body image issues or eating disorder issues. They were very far and few in between. So people would say, oh, you look really good. You know, how could, what are you talking about? And I go, okay, I need to keep going. I need to find the therapist. And when I bumped into the National Eating Disorders Association, it was like, I found some answers that had a little bit of this right with me a little bit there with me. And so if anybody's listening, the National Eating Disorders Association,

that is where you go, find out information about if you have a friend that has an eating disorder or body image issues. If you want to learn more about family situation, there's a hotline there. So I can only say I love what they've done. And it nourished me when I figured out that I wasn't crazy and that I grew up in a family where fear of the body was ensuing as well as a lot of dieting. So I was perfectly primed. And I lived in another country that didn't really elevate women like I was used to in the United States or were still working on things in that manner. So it was a collection of a lot of focus on the body, not love, but fear. And I didn't like it. My body got me red, you know, gold ribbons and gold medals. And there was this success that I was having as

an athlete, but on a private level, I was an Amazon and, oh, you better be smaller. Also, man's never going to love you. You're never going to get this. You're never going to get that. And I was like, well, who's that didn't make any sense, you know? So here I am today with all the experiences from where I came from to being an advocate and moving forward in 2022 and beyond to help expand the understanding of what is good and right. It has to start with us. It has to be us that we know that I've got this. Stop telling me what to do or how to do it. I know when I need to get

out. I know how to eat really well. My goodness gracious. I'm working on it. I'm learning about it. I'm learning about not beating myself up anymore. It's a process, but it's one that is the most important process to learn your individual one. That's true. In fact, I wanted to share with you, I had also discovered the triple goddess over these past months, and that's been a big part of my journey. And I had this moment with the moon and I just wanted to read you. It's something that I was, I was actually, I didn't even realize what I had wrote until after I wrote it. So definitely was from a higher source. But it says, the sun had only just begun to rise in the east as I looked to the sky and saw her, curved and slender. The winding crescent moon.

My heart longed for the full moon. How I love her energy. I sat longer than I could on a cold winter morning, becoming aware of my breath that I could see from the cold. Once more, I gazed at the splinter in the sky, wondering why is it that she hides? And to my surprise, she spoke to me. Seeker, she said, look beyond what the eyes can see. You cannot always see your breath, but you know it's there. She reminded me that my thoughts are only from my perspective, that I only am seeing one side of a bigger picture in the assurance of a brighter future. She challenged what I've learned throughout my journey about trust and about faith,

and this spoke to my heart. As you move into your crown goddess, you may find that you only see a glimpse in the mirror of your maiden self, but they still live within you. Humbled, I closed my eyes and opened myself to connect with the experience of this unknown energy. And it was then that divine wisdom completely revealed herself. I felt the love of my divine feminine that I had been longing for and saw that she is one. She is whole. And so am I. Oh my God. As I get older, I feel like I have lost that maiden self, that slender curve in the sky. I don't connect with it anymore. It's so beautiful. It was a beautiful moment. I swear to God, I did not write this. This is one of those things. I didn't even get it until after I read it. Channeling something. It's so beautiful. How do you embrace the maiden, the slender curvy? How do you still embrace the mother as you're in your

crone? I mean, is it just acknowledging that they're both still there? Yeah. Remembering that you're still playful and sexy, right? Those things aren't physical. That's the whole thing. Like they're within you. They have nothing to do with the outside world. It's the whole thing. Like they're within you. They have nothing to do

with the outside world. It's the whole thing that Emmy was saying. It's already in you. And that was the one thing I've recognized. The moon isn't just a curve and slender. She is a whole always. Always, always everything, everything we seek is within ourselves everything yeah i get very emotional yeah well it's wonderful to note to be to be reminded and to share this that like when i take a bath i always i like, back up everybody. I am putting in Epsom salts and rose and essential oils and candles and music. And, you know, my beau is so sweet bringing in a glass of wine from time, you know, but that's my space. That's where I can just relax, reflect, listen to my favorite podcast.

And it's connecting to the self, spiritually, physically, mentally. Carving out the time to walk in nature gets so much from my physical body being in nature and then carving out the time in my busy day, whatever, do we not have enough time to give ourselves solo mente time for meditation or taking a bath or taking a rest? We must be able to do this. We should not be on a work wheel where we're constantly going, doing for everybody else. And at the end of the day, we're at the bottom. We must come in first. We must, no matter how many kids we have, we must do something for ourselves so that we can be able to give fully without resentment. It's the most important thing. And when we see ourselves as full and whole,

whether it's the crescent moon, what's the full moon or, and celebrating the moons, knowing what shape the moon is in honoring the full moon celebration. That's nice. That's fun to do that with other people. Last night I was at a friend of ours and I was already feeling emotional walking in because he just had lost his wife to cancer and they're young. They're like 40 and they have two children here. You have this dad now, you know, with his two kids.

And I went and I sat on the couch and there was a picture facing the couch and not a coffee table. And it was just of nature. It was just grass blades and like this beautiful blue sky, very simple. And it was facing us. And so I looked over at Nick and I said, tell me about that photo. And he said, well, when my wife was dying, she laid on this couch and that was the one picture she wanted facing her that helped her to be at peace and to be able to calm down. It just was like this magical moment of just asking him. You could tell he was so honored to share it too. And he said, I'm going to keep it there forever.

I looked at it a little bit more and it reminded me that it's that simple things that really actually bring us that unconditional love and that peace. And we're looking for it to be in some big house or some big car, you know, nice car clothes or. Yeah. There's people that, um, that are really don't have a lot and they're the happiest people around and there's people that have so much and they're unhappy as hell. It's not about the stuff. It's not about the stuff. It's definitely about being comfortable in the skin you're in. And then obviously the health and happiness of those that you hold close. Absolutely. And nature. Boy, are animals also unconditional love? My gosh, my cat teaches me this and I am

not a cat person. Believe me. I'm surprised that Saladin is actually not up here. You know, when I meditate, man, he jumps right into my lap and is like, when you're feeling sad or when you're feeling, you know, like times are hard that these animals are absolutely showing what unconditional love is. So showing unconditional love to one another, like without judgment, without trying to be right here, you're going to be there for each other. And sometimes just letting things roll a little bit off the back. But in this time, supporting one another unconditionally is, is one of the greatest gifts that we can give. If we give to ourselves unconditionally first. I feel like there's this very strong feminine energy coming through for this age of Aquarius.

Women like you is what we need in this world and more conversations like this so that other people can hear them and relate and know that, you know, we're all going through the same. We're all, we're all human. We're all in this together. And when one person meditates, it really makes a difference when we go into that center. So when you gather together, whether it's on zoom or whether it's like you do it on a Saturday, or when you come to being, whether it's crystal bowl healing or it's meditation or it's collective consciousness, when you gather with a group, it makes a difference. It really makes a difference during this time when there's a lot of uncertainty and, but there's always been a lot of uncertainty.

Yeah, absolutely. Coming together. Yeah. So thank you. This has just been, this has been enlightening. Thank you. You're absolutely. Coming together. Yeah. So thank you. This has just been, this has been enlightening. Thank you. You're so aligned with us. And I have a feeling a lot of our listeners are going to want to reach out to you. Can you tell them a little bit about what kind of coaching you're doing? Sure. Absolutely. I have one-on-one VIP coaching that is a little

bit more than the group coaching. And I only have a few people that I work with because it does take a lot more attention. The group group sessions that I have starting in March, the beginning of March, anybody that would like to learn more about that, I would love to have conversations about anybody wanting to take a look at their own ideas of body image and self-esteem. And that's what we're working on for 12 sessions over six months. We're going to be getting on Zoom once a week. And if the timing of the Zoom call, the Zoom session, it's always going to be available with a link so you can look at it.

Or even I go hiking and walking when I listen to different podcasts that I'm a part of or sessions that I'm a part of that I didn't get to do in live. But you could email me, emme at emmestyle.com or go on to The Official Emmy on Instagram and DM me. And I can set up a time for us to have a conversation as to where you're at, what you're looking for, and see if you're a match. I would love, love, love to have those conversations. Absolutely. Thank you. You know, I have to say, I know you were voted in people twice as the most beautiful woman. And I think that you are, you have the most beautiful soul as well. I mean, if anyone could vote for anything, I would have voted that because really, truly, you are beautiful from the inside out. It's amazing. You are so kind and thank you. That's very touching.

Thank you. And now it's time for break that shit down. Okay. So breaking that shit down, let's do ourselves a favor. And when we feel ourselves slipping into an old program of self-flagellation and self-blame about all the ills around us, and we step back and we say, why not feel good? Why not feel good? And walk around the house until that feeling shifts to bringing you in the present moment and you feel good because there's no reason to go back and relive what we've gone through and be fearful for the future. The only thing we have right now, and it sounds cliche, but it's the truth is the present moment. So let's not waste it anymore. Right here, right now, feeling good. Love that. And also pick up the book, the chicken soup for the soul, the curbing confident. Yes. Confident. Yeah,

definitely. That's a great series. We did. We had so much fun writing that book. There were a lot, a lot of stories, but my gosh, we all have curves as you know, it's a female based book. I mean, we're however thin or larger you are. Those stories are fantastic. Please be confident in the chicken for the soul series. Yeah. You have tons of books, but you can find them all at your website, right? Yes. And emmystyle.com thank you thank you and i look so forward to hearing from anybody that would like to have more of a discussion around feeling good in the skin they're in thank you so much it's so nice to meet you both thanks for being with us today we hope you will come back next week.

If you like what you hear, don't forget to rate, like, and subscribe. Thank you. We rise to lift you up. Thanks for listening.