A Girl's Guide to Being Fearless (eBook)

How to Find Your Brave

Suzie Lavington, Andy Cope (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-0-85708-861-1 (ISBN)

Infos

THE ULTIMATE SELF-CARE BOOK FOR TEENAGE GIRLS

Face up to the world with confidence and higher self-esteem  

Growing up has become faster, more furious and the pressures more intense. Anxiety and panic have reached epidemic proportions. A third of teenage girls will suffer from depression. Factor in a rise in self-harm and eating disorders and the mental health stats become alarming.  

It's time to equip young women with the means to fight back.  

A Girl's Guide to Being Fearless unlocks self-esteem, confidence, wellbeing, resilience and offers an antidote to an overwhelming world of altered photos, filters, and fillers. 

A Girl's Guide helps parents, girls, and teachers understand that wellbeing is an inside job. As an essential book for our time, this guide reflects the challenging world facing teens. The authors suggest there is little to be gained by asking girls to stop taking selfies or using Instagram filters, because these habits are ingrained in teenage culture. Instead, guidance is provided on how girls can take action to increase their confidence and love the skin they are in. Moreover, it's about learning to be a class act in person and online. 

• Practical exercises and doable ideas to inspire young women  
• Encouragement to eliminate self-limiting beliefs  
• Guidance for girls on lifting themselves and others up  
• Tips for showing greater confidence and being excited about the future 
• Suggestions for how to live your best life 

Keep calm and read A Girl's Guide to Being Fearless, a gathering of life's cheat codes; all simple, do-able and hugely entertaining.

Learn how to show anxiety the door and let in more of the good stuff. This book will help you find your Brave. Whisper it quietly, but it might even change your life. 

Autor

Suzie Lavington is a trainer and coach with The Art of Brilliance. Suzie is committed to showing people that their potential really does stretch to infinity and beyond, and runs workshops on self-esteem for young people. Andy Cope's day job is as the UK's first official 'Dr of Happiness' - which gives him a strong media platform on all things 'happiness' and 'wellbeing'. Andy has written various best-selling personal development books, and founded 'Art of Brilliance' in 2004. His aim, to blaze a new trail - one that was totally rooted in the real world and that would make a massive and immediate impact on individuals and organisations.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. A letter to the sisterhood 3

Chapter 2. In the beginning... 9

Chapter 3. Two questions, two truths and a lie 15

Chapter 4. Mirror, mirror on the wall... 25

Chapter 5. The facts of life 33

Chapter 6. Be your own BFF 43

Chapter 7. How to win the lottery 53

Chapter 8. How to break up with your smartphone 61

Chapter 9. Finding your Brave 67

Chapter 10. You. Are. MORE THAN. Enough 91

Chapter 11. The chapter about bullying 99

Chapter 12. The power of NOW 115

Chapter 13. When the going gets stupidly tough 125

Chapter 14. Get well soon 137

Chapter 15. Going viral 145

Chapter 16. Be You. It's an awesome look 153

Chapter 17. How to be a class act online 167

Chapter 18. How to never do a day's work in your life 179

Chapter 19. The greatest story ever told 189

Textauszug

Chapter 3
TWO QUESTIONS, TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE

What I didn't tell you in the previous chapter is that Remy has an older sister. As I write these words, my eldest daughter, Amelie, is three years old.

Amelie. Is. Awesome.

She carries herself around with what can only be described as a ‘toddler swagger’: chest puffed out, arms swinging confidently by her sides, chucking herself wholeheartedly into every single step. She's hugely proud of who she is and what she can do, and takes up her space without apology.

Now, if you've spent even the smallest amount of time in the company of a three-year-old, you might be familiar with their tendency to burst into song and/or dance, any time, anywhere, and for anyone. Amelie's no exception and I chuffin’ well love her for it. And I'm not talking quaint little ditty paired with graceful balletic movement. I'm talking head thrown back, voice at full belt, limbs at full stretch while she hurls herself across the room in a shameless display of absolutely loving life. And I use ‘shameless’ in the very best sense of the word (we all desperately need to carry around less shame… more on that later).

And heaven help anyone who claps when she's ‘not finished yet!’ or forgets to clap when she clearly has. For the record, the end of every performance is signalled by an over-enthusiastic bow… a bow she'll keep taking until you've thrown precisely the right amount of applause and glory her way. She's rather partial to a standing ovation, is my Amelie.

She also LOVES her reflection. Every time she catches herself in the mirror, she beams. Then she'll strike a pose. Or twenty. I'm not kidding, that little cupcake could spend hours alone with any reflective surface, just… loving herself. Smiling at the image staring back at her. Sometimes even kissing it.

I know most little humans do this. If I really think back, I know I used to do it, too. And so did you!

The question is, then: when did I stop? When did I stop demanding standing ovations? When did I stop looking in the mirror and thinking, ‘Oh wow, get a loada me! Look at what I can do! How blinkin’ brilliant am I?’

When, instead, did I start thinking, ‘Well, wuddya look at the state of that!’

‘Look at the dark circles under my eyes!’

‘Look how hideous my thighs look in these tights!’

‘What in the name of sod has happened to my hair?’

‘Zit alert! My life is over!’

‘I hate my horrible teeth/nose/stomach/[insert any body part imaginable!]. What can I wear to cover that up?’

‘I've got a massive day ahead of me today… what's the betting I'm gonna balls it up?’

It's incredible how we do this to ourselves, isn't it? Like some masochistic religion: every morning, we stand in front of our reflections, home in on the bits of our bodies we dislike, and promptly annihilate ourselves with a barrage of abuse.

When so many of us start our days like this, is it any wonder we sometimes feel like we're limping through them, mentally battered and bruised?

I mean, where in the name of fudge did our courageous little three-year-old selves go? The ones who loved the limelight? The kids who threw their arms wide and welcomed each new day?

If that's how we all started, when did we stop?

The answer, I guess, is that there was probably no single moment or event. It was a gradual drip, drip, drip over many years – of other people's nonsense getting inside our head. Friends, parents, teachers, siblings, film and TV.

Put that all together and you get ‘culture’ – the way things are – and to feel safe and secure you have an inbuilt desire to fit in. You become part of the nonsense.

But the brilliant news is that as a teen, you're old enough to read this book and young enough to change. And by ‘change’ I mean upgrade your thinking and habits.

Aside from perhaps a couple of inbuilt phobias, we're all born with just one emotion: love. We want to give it and we want to receive it. How brilliantly uncomplicated!

Newborn babies don't need therapy or counselling. We're born a blank slate with what Buddhists call our ‘original face’. You're pure YOU. No hang-ups or embarrassment. You unashamedly pooped your nappy and let mum/dad wipe you down and stick a fresh one on. You didn't lie there, all embarrassed, while your poor old dad retched as he cleaned you up. You just wriggled and giggled and thought you were fabulous.

And when he was done, you did it again! *Cue more giggling.*

You had no beliefs or prejudices. Babies aren't racist or sexist. Babies can't even recognise themselves in a mirror. Aged nine months, when your mum showed you YOU in the mirror, you didn't think, ‘Holy cow. I'm chuffin’ bald! And why hasn't someone told me I've got baby food slapped all over my forehead? No way! Look at my forearms… they're fat! OMG… is that my belly? And get a load of these chubby cheeks. I'm half human, half hamster! I can't ever go out in public.’

Nope. You just smiled and dribbled.

But as we get older, we start to develop a sense of self. We begin to understand that the person in the mirror is us. And that's great in primary school, but then something else kicks in when you reach double-digit age. We begin to get a sense of what other people think about us.

That small sentence has massive implications.

Up until that point, your child brain has thoughts but hasn't twigged that all the other brains have thoughts, too. Once that particular penny drops, you start to worry about what other people might be thinking about you. So instead of just going for it, you start to withdraw and be cautious. You stop jumping in puddles because, well, what would people think? You look around at everyone else in full make-up mode and do the same because if I venture out with my natural face, what on earth will people think?

The drip, drip, drip effect means the tap of gushing enthusiasm and joy of life gets gradually turned off. If you're not careful, the gush becomes a trickle. And if you look around at some of the adults in your life, their tap has been turned off completely.

My message to you is this: look around at the masses – the hordes of human beings who hibernate in a state of bog-standard, waking up briefly for a week's holiday, before returning to their slumbering averageness – AND DON'T EVER BECOME THAT!

Their inner adventurer is in sleep mode. Deep sleep mode.

Girl's Guide is a reminder – a wake-up call. Rise and shine, lady, your best life awaits!

But before we get into the proper nitty-gritty, I have to share two HUGE questions, two MASSIVE truths and a BIG FAT lie.

The first HUGE QUESTION is this: what are you?

Whatever name you go by, you are made up of 37 trillion cells that stick together to form ‘you’. Each of those cells is a tiny dot of energy.

So you are energy. Pure energy.

General knowledge tells you that cells die and are regenerated. For example, the cells on your tongue live for a few hours before dying and being replaced by a fresh new taste bud. Red blood cells live for a few weeks, white blood cells a matter of days. Liver cells get a bit longer. Colon cells get a few months.

Yada yada, whatever.

My point is this: every cell in your body dies and is regenerated. The whole regeneration process takes about six months. Bottom line, in six months from now, you will be an entirely new human being. You will be a completely different 37,000,000,000,000 cells.

A completely new you.

So, HUGE QUESTION number 2 is this: what kind of you do you want to be?

Because MASSIVE TRUTH number 1 is that you can have a pulse but not be pulsating with life.

‘Presenteeism’ is a business word that's used to describe people who show up at work but go through the motions. They're logged on from 9.01 to 4.59, occupying a desk, sucking up oxygen and drinking bad coffee, but they're not really there. Not fully.

Except ‘presenteeism’ isn't just about work. It can also apply to school and life. Look around. There are a lot of people logged on, breathing, drinking bad coffee – but not many who are buzzing.

It's my belief that life is a short and precious gift. In the history of the universe, you live for such a brief flicker – isn't it worth making that pulse of yours race a bit? Isn't it worth putting a bit of effort into something a bit naughty, different, memorable, thrilling or adventurous? Or how about working at being more optimistic, hopeful, energetic, dynamic and positive?

But there's a line to be drawn somewhere, right? I agree. You can overdo it. There's an old English word – grinagog: someone who's so annoyingly happy that you want to punch them on the nose.

I'm absolutely NOT into that. If you're annoying people with your zest for life, you're doing it wrong. Rather, I want you to take them with you on your journey. I want you to be infectious. In a wonderfully uplifting way.

Which begs the question, why...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 6.11.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Sachbücher ► Körper / Sexualität
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie
• Schlagworte: adolescence • Children's • Children's Special Topics • ?confidence young girl • Entwicklungspsychologie / Jugendalter • ?fearless young women • ?fragile self-esteem • ?girl's guide • guidance for girls • Happiness • ?increase confidence • ?inspire young women • Kinder • Mental Health • Motivatio • Motivational • Psychologie • Psychology • Ratgeber • Ratgeber Motivation • Resilience • Self-Help • ?social media teens • Spezialthemen Kinder • teen anxiety • teen depression • ?teen?eating disorders • ?teen?self-help guide • Wellbeing
• ISBN-10: 0-85708-861-0 / 0857088610
• ISBN-13: 978-0-85708-861-1 / 9780857088611