Annebel Club @ HF Verwoerd - meeting - The Ilze Halliday Foundation
Had an awesome meeting with my girls this morning! Talked about self-esteem and self-image....how your own image of yourself is hardly ever the one other people have of you and how, when others try to break you down with negative words and criticism...you should know that you only need to believe in yourself.
One angel said that, when you get up in the morning you should look in the mirror and tell yourself: you are perfect, you are special and nothing can ever change that.
Teenagers will always be vulnerable to the idea that they are imperfect, that other people are 'better' and 'better off' than they are. Self-acceptance, self-love and self-respect must be cultivated at their age so that they can, in time, stand up for what they believe in and not follow the crowd blindly, like sheep.
They need to know they are indeed special and that is what I intended with my demonstration this morning. They had to choose between images fat/thin, pretty/ugly, good/bad, etc and decide which image reflects their own personal idea of who they are. Then they had to give their friends the opportunity to decide what they think of each other....the difference in opinions were profound and, to the girls, surprising. They suddenly realized that, 'while I was thinking I was such an ugly girl, my friend thinks I'm beautiful'. The point was to have them see themselves through the eyes of other people....it worked like a charm.
I wanted to show them that they deserve to have self-love and self-respect and that they are indeed worthy young girls; pretty, full of life, full of hopes and dreams and that they may have received the short end of the stick now (given most of their circumstances), but that they can, through perseverance, actually achieve the impossible within their lifetime.
Once again I would like to thank my wonderful club members for attending and Carien.... YOU ROCK!!!
