Here’s the thing - life is tough and it can leave us feeling pretty broken at times. But you don’t have to LIVE broken. Author and speaker, Mattie Jackson, is sitting down with inspiring authors, musicians, and entrepreneurs to uncover how they’re chasing the good in life and why they’re intentionally choosing joy even when life has knocked them down. Through personal stories and humorous encounters, these conversations are like sitting down with life-long friends – friends whose own courage to live joyfully will equip and encourage you to do the same. No matter the hurt you’ve experienced or what unknowns may lie ahead, there IS joy waiting for you - right here, right now. And Mattie is here to help you find it. This is the In-Joy Life Podcast.
I bet it doesn’t take long for your critical mind’s eye to conjure up a time when you felt insecure in your body.
Whatever the memory, whatever the scale or the season, all of us are haunted at points by the “not ______ enough’s” or the “too _________’s” about our bodies.
This week’s guests know what it’s like to have all eyes – and cameras – on you.
As a child star – beginning acting at 4 years old – whose TV/film career skyrocketed in her teens and early twenties (e.g. Clarissa Explains It All & Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Melissa Joan Hart has decades of experience resisting the snares of comparison and insecurity.
But even as a young actress, Melissa says she didn’t feel as much pressure to live up to unrealistic physical standards then as she has this past decade of aging after having her three children. And her bestie and co-host, Amanda Lee (former beauty pageant queen, also mom of 3), doubles down on the crucial intentionality it takes to stay grateful for the body we have, rather than obsessing about the one we don’t.
These two get real and spur us on in the struggle:
As Melissa so simply and profoundly reminds us, “the goal is to get older.” The goal is to live another day, another year, another decade in a body and mind that serves you best for the time you’re in.
Sure, it doesn’t always look or feel sexy, but they’re calling us not the miss the beauty in the process just because we don’t always like the picture. None of us stay 21 forever – why not learn to age gracefully and gratefully (and with no shortage of humor!)?