Ali Campbell: Body to die for?
Wednesday 23 February 2011
London during fashion week is a fascinating place in celebrity life-coach land, so many issues and so little time!
It is said (and often by some of my clients) that you can never be to rich, too skinny or too blonde but I for one beg to differ.
I was watching a runway show the other day (you’ll not mind if I don’t name names, after all I do have a living to earn) when it struck me that amongst the skeletal throng of peroxide millionaires the only thing scarcer than a Greggs sausage roll was a smile…
‘Innocent’ members of the public are supposed to aspire to emulate these lifeless and lackluster catwalk creations in pursuit of the body beautiful and therefore gain acceptance and inspire envy in whichever social group they want to belong. After all that is what it’s all about, the pursuit of a social construct that has absolutely no positive impact on your happiness or overall wellbeing but can, and very easily have the exactly the opposite effect even with fatal consequences.
You might remember the story in the press recently of the young British woman who died after what appears to have been a botched back street operation to enhance her bum? I know many women who say they would (figuratively) die to have a smaller bum never mind someone actually dying to have a larger one. And why? Well, as reports trickle come out we learn that a young, talented, healthy woman let someone directly inject her with industrial silicone (that’s the stuff you seal the bath with to you and I) in order to plump up her buttocks so she could get look ‘hot’ and get work in hip hop videos.
How can this be happening? On one hand we some women starving to conform to one ‘desirable’ image while others are dying to plump themselves up to conform to another and all in the same city… right here in London.
To quote another well-worn phrase: This is not a dress rehearsal! (Sorry, you’ll have to pardon all the puns it’s been a long week already)
But seriously, this is not a dress rehearsal, this is your life and in the absence of firm proof in the ever after I for one suggest we approach it as if it is the only one we’re going to get. If I’m wrong it will be a nice surprise and at least I’ll be happy finding out.
What makes you happy? I know that new shoes, bags, hair cut, waistline, boobs, butt, lips can all make you happy for a little while. Usually a very little while and that’s because happiness is only ever an inside out process. That’s what so many of my clients are often missing. The key is to attain happiness AND have wonderful collection of ‘stuff’ not happy BECAUSE you have stuff. Or be happy AND be a size whatever not happy BECAUSE you are a particular size… The proof is right there in front of you on the international catwalks, the problem personified in the plucked and preened images of ‘perfection.’ But are they happy. Nope! And I should know, I’m often the one picking up the pieces behind the public image.
You are better than that, you are real and you can be really happy just by being really you. From a male perspective the most attractive quality in anyone is that glint in your eye, the sparkle in your heart and a sense of life and fun and energy the finds it’s way from the inside out and can never be surpassed by any amount of artificial bling, boobs and bums…
Happy fashion week! 
To find out more about Ali, check out www.alicampbell.com