Act Like You BELONG on the Cover of Vogue

In my last post, I highlighted why I love Jessica Simpson. She embodies a fully developed Aphrodite Attitude because she is secure in her beauty and isn’t willing to hear anyone tear her down for trivial things – particularly a 10-pound weight gain (like at the beginning of a pregnancy)!

Believe it or not, I think Kim Kardashian is an even better ambassador to the Aphrodite Attitude concept!!

This is how we first met Kim. She is an undeniably beautiful woman, she KNOWS it and she ALWAYS ACCENTUATES her assets.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the scuttlebutt surrounding the most recent cover of Vogue featuring Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Frankly, I’m a tad bewildered at why the issue is causing as much controversy as it is; I completely understand that people are on Kardashian overload because of all their past hijinks and histrionics, but we’re missing the point. Anna Wintour would NEVER even consider placing someone on the cover of Vogue if they weren’t able to sell magazines. Unfortunately, her standards are somewhat unrealistic because of Vogue’s intrinsic relationship with the fashion industry.

 

Media overload or great Aphrodite Attitude??

However, you have to admit that despite all of the kerfuffle that the Kardashians create, Kim is INSANELY GORGEOUS and could have had a career riving Gisele or Heidi or Tyra or Naomi (if the industry’s standards were more realistic)! And that is the lesson we need to keep in the front of our minds.

Kim is another celebrity who fully embraces her Aphrodite Attitude — she knows what her assets are and she has absolutely no qualms about being able to flaunt them. Look at these pictures of her throughout the years.

Kim had an incredibly beautiful body from the moment she first came on the scene.

Kim is even more gorgeous with the glow of impending motherhood!

 

Shortly after giving birth to North, she exudes that sexy confidence she’s always had.

Kim started a firestorm when she posted this on Instagram — but why shouldn’t she flaunt having a body like that after having a baby??

Here’s some amazing (and fully clothed!!) shots of Kim after North

Taking a cue from Kim, in the next few posts I want to delve into how we can accentuate our best features, mainly our gorgeous faces and breathtaking eyes (I don’t know a single woman who doesn’t have beautiful eyes!).

Jessica Simpson’s Aphrodite Attitude

Jessica’s confidence and beauty shines through regardless of what the scale says, and THAT is an Aphrodite Attitude!

I remember back in 2004, I saw Maxim’s countdown of the “Maxim Hot 100” on VH1 and I loved that Jessica Simpson took the number one spot. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is that makes me so drawn to her. Scratch that… I know EXACTLY why I love her so much, but I’ll let you see why:

She epitomizes the Essence of an Aphrodite Attitude, not because she’s blonde bombshell, but because she UNABASHEDLY LOVES who she is NOW!! She admits that’s she’s not always following her “diet” perfectly because she’s only human and she wants to enjoy her life.

An Aphrodite Attitude can and will have many faces; Jessica’s just so happens to be more focused on healthy eating habits and being happy and in love with herself, despite what a scale might say.

I want every woman to have the same confidence that Jessica has.

Let’s Build a HEALTHY Aphrodite Attitude

As I’m sure you all know, I’ve loved Greek mythology for as long as I can remember, especially Aphrodite because of her unshakable confidence in her beauty and sex appeal. After I wrote my last post, I thought of another goddess I admired, Psyche; I loved her because of her steadfast determination to fight for what she wants. When she lost her love, Eros, she happily completed the labors Aphrodite assigned to her, regardless of how demeaning and in the end, she married Eros in a great celebration blessed by all of the other gods and goddesses.

In today’s society, Merriam-Webster gives two distinct definitions of the word “psyche.” The first relates to the English translation of the Greek word, psychē, which refers to a person’s soul, personality and mind. Definition #2 refers the way everyone (especially clinical psychologists) have a proclivity to “anticipate correctly the intentions or actions of [someone.]” On the surface, these definitions seem to be polar opposites, but in truth they are interconnected.

A well-respected journal of psychology, “Psychology Today” does an excellent job of melding the two definitions. In my last post, I detailed the three critical aspects of a HEALTHY Aphrodite Attitude, the most important being an understanding that we are inherently flawed, but our flaws are NOT fatal. In fact, they are just as, if not more important, to defining who we are as our strengths. When properly understood and harnessed, your flaws can and will become strengths.

Many women have a broken psyche as a result of the many pressures we face from society. Think about some of the boxes we’re bombarded with from infancy:

1. You have to be a certain dress size or you’re fat and ugly,
2. If you don’t get married and have a family by this age, you’ll be relegated to the life of an unwanted spinster,
3. Follow this career path and keep your opinions to yourself or you’ll be known as a bitch, and so forth.

Whenever I start to feel defeated by the pressures of society, I visualize two trees, one broken and a grand old oak tree. Every once in a while branches break off in a big storm, but that DOES NOT stop the tree from growing. Rather, the tree takes the time to get to know its wound and heals it the best way it knows how. When it is given enough time, the tree will replace that broken branch with two stronger, more beautiful branches. This is a tree after a massive storm:

Dove recently released a sad statistic: only 4% of women in the world consider themselves beautiful

If you’re willing to go on this journey with me and rebuild your Aphrodite Attitude, I want to make your psyche look like this:

An ancient oak studies its injuries and takes all the time it needs to grow stronger, more beautiful branches.

Our goal is simply this: do as an oak tree and absorb whatever criticisms are directed at us and use them to our advantage. It NEVER frets over a broken branch… it studies it’s faults and then takes the time to not only heal itself but grow two bigger and stronger branches in its place. And just like an ancient oak, this will not happen overnight; it will take dedication, but EVERY step you take is important.