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Disclaimer
Beverley has prepared the content of Bev's World irresponsibly and carelessly. She therefore disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, originality or completeness of the drivel presented on this blog or on other linked websites or on any subsequent links. She vehemently denies that the information may be relied upon for any reason. Beverley shall not be liable for inflicting laughter, shame, disgust, torrents of tears and the eventual desiccation or crashing boredom on readers.

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Sunday 26 June 2011

Learning from the little people...

26th June 2011 

Beauty is more than a pretty face and no amount of money can buy a beautiful soul.

Yesterday I had fun, after the Summer Fete at the school, where I did a spot of one of my favourite pastimes of people watching, and that always makes for interesting viewing.  It’s no secret that I adore having children in my Weight Watcher meetings ;D, heck I even supply lollies, so yesterday I watched lots of the little people running round a school yard, even when it poured down with rain they were oblivious to it all, one little girl stood devouring a cup cake, focusing on it so intently as if it was the only thing in world at that moment, she took little mouthfuls and chewed them completely whilst looking at the cake in anticipation on the next bite, but not eating it greedily, she was taking her time and all the time she was getting soaking wet, she hadn’t got a coat on but she didn’t care.  That’s called ‘mindfulness’ and we could all do with practicing some of it in our lives.  We can learn a lot from these little people, mindfulness being only one thing, the next time you indulge in a cup cake or something equally delicious give it that amount of attention, because I watched grown ups eating those same cakes yesterday and they didn’t even taste it because they continued walking round, talking and doing other things at the same time. 

Yes we had lots of fun, Lynne drove over with her husband and their two kids to keep me company and we had fun, face painting, henna designs on the hands, bouncy castles -  this is just the kids and I was sooooooo jealous, I wanted to go on the bouncy castle, I wanted my face painted and if it hadn’t of been raining so much at the end of the day I would have had my hand painted with henna, but we’d already waited 20 minutes in the rain for Jen to get hers done and she was getting soaked.  So instead we’ve ordered some henna from ebay and Jen’s gonna paint my hands for me in the holiday, that’ll be fun – I’ll post photos ;D
Well I don’t believe I’m writing this but after the fete we went to the Wacky Warehouse!  Yes I coped again, I’m not a fan though, I still don’t understand why you can’t check the kids in at the door and go sit in the restaurant next door till their down!  When we finally did get to go eat, we had a a real good giggle, Jen practiced some designs ready for when the henna arrived and she also drew me a picture which is on my wall in my office now.  Me and Will shared dessert – OMG - it was a little bit big and it beat us, we couldn’t finish it. 

So I left with belly ache not from overindulging but from laughing, did you know that humans and apes are the only animals with the capacity for laughter.  Why waste such a precious gift?  A good laugh can make us healthier, happier, more productive, more at ease and shared laughter forges friendships even with the little people!   Here’s a random bit of info for you, someone calculated that if you laughed uproariously for an hour, you’d burn more calories than in an hour of walking!  So if you needed a reason to have a good laugh, there’s one, it also tones 15 facial muscles so it’s a natural cosmetic surgery. 

Laughter really is good for you and kids really know how to do it unreservedly, you can learn a lot from them, they don’t care who’s watching them and whether they’re embarrassing themselves they just laugh and have fun.  So stop being so self aware, let go a little and have a giggle. 
Really tiny babies can teach us a thing or two also!  In my meeting on Thursday was the tiniest baby, 5 days old,  as you can imagine it got a lot of attention. Have you ever watched a baby when their sitting on the floor in their nappies.   All babies usually have plenty of baby fat, and they couldn’t care less. They are happy and joyful; they has no feelings of shame towards their body. They just sat there, smiled and play with those belly rolls.  I wonder at what point that shame kicks in. For almost all of us, it eventually does. Maybe it’s when kids tease us for being fat in school. Or maybe it’s we’re dumped in favour of the pretty one. Or maybe it’s when we look in magazines and see the impossibly airbrushed bodies.

Clearly, shame is not something with which we are born, a babies behaviour is proof of that. We need to learn to dislike our human bodies – and it’s an art that we hone finely.  It’s easy to point fingers at the media or the culture around us, however we also need to share the responsibility; we can want to create a healthier body without hating or disliking the one we already have. You can lose weight whilst loving what is at the same time. (That’s the point of my website www.happyowls.co.uk)

Loving our bodies as they are today is natural – and possible. Turns out, we can learn a lot from a baby. 

Having said all this, I still don’t want any of my own ;D I’m happy to borrow from time to time and watch the really small ones from afar.

If you have a child, why don’t you go have fun with them today, it doesn’t have to cost money, it’s just a case of bringing yourself down to their level and having fun.  We ate yesterday but I never once thought about food, I was too busy having fun.

xx

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