I am a woman on a mission.
I have spent over 30 years defining my self-worth by the number on the scales and I am declaring ‘enough is enough.
We can’t keep deferring our happiness until we weigh x, fit into y or look like z.
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My mission is to separate one’s self-worth and value from body size and weight.
In a recent poll in my Shine with Style Facebook group (1.6k members), 85% of participants cited body image as their biggest impediment to joy and happiness.
That was a real eye-opener for me. So many people are holding themselves back, opting out of social occasions, and abstaining from family photos, due to poor body image and lack of confidence.
My own hang-ups date back to my teenage years. One vivid memory was when we were conditioned to buy a certain size of Levi’s 501 and I didn’t fit the mould. I had to buy a size up and it was a defining moment for me. And that continued into my life. (until I used my now proven tools and techniques to find FREEDOM and now I share them with my clients).
Three babies under the ages of 3.5 years saw my weight rise and the pressures of parenting and life saw me push pause on any plans for myself.
But, years down the line, I had an epiphany. Having withdrawn from the corporate world to have our three children, I was scared of losing myself, and my identity. My lifestyle had changed, stalled”. On a complete whim, I entered, and won, Ireland’s Next Top Stylist and WON!
I was someone who couldn’t even do a prayer of the faithful at mass, so why I catapulted myself into this fast-paced, challenging world was mind-boggling, even to me.
However, I was drawn to the challenge of helping women look and feel amazing..
I was blighted by ‘imposter syndrome’, though, and was easily derailed by comments like ‘You need something more unique and edgy to be a stylist’, as one established self-proclaimed aficionado told me. I took it to heart and believed that I was too ordinary to be a fashion stylist.
So, I moved into the world of retail and, for 6.5 years I focused on helping dress the women of Ireland. However, it always felt like I was putting a plaster on a broken leg… I could help style women but when they left the shop, they weren’t able to replicate it themselves, So nothing had changed.
I took the brave leap of faith in September 2019 and set up my business, Sharon Huggard The Style Coach,.
My starting premise was always to help women, so I looked at the idea of dressing women to make them feel good on the inside and outside.
I had embarked on her own voyage of personal discovery and amassed a range of coaching skills from QTT (Quantum Thinking Transformations), NLP, Life Coaching as well as styling qualifications.
When I set up The Style Coach, I vowed I was going to be myself, Sharon Huggard, someone who has had to deal with my own self-worth challenges. And I could see how what I was saying was resonating with the thousands who came to my masterclasses, signed up for The Style Solution programme, and tuned in to my Facebook lives on both my own page and on Derval.ie.
I’m very conscious of the value placed on weight and size and I want to help shift that negative, debilitating mindset to one of acceptance. My proposition is what if we start with an acceptance of where we are right now, not a berating of ourselves for our body.
I think of the legacy we are leaving our daughters and sons. That can’t be that we don’t deserve or aren’t worthy until we look a certain way.
Our beliefs need to change and the stories we tell ourselves. Unless we change those, nothing is going to change for us. The culture of body-shaming is causing people to disengage from the process of opportunity-creation and making precious memories with their families.
I say to my clients when you look back at a photo of loved ones, do you scrutinise their body or do you recall the memories associated with that time?
I challenge my clients to ask themselves: If I didn’t spend so much time obsessing about my weight, what else could I do? Stepping away from the negative, toxic, self-beliefs brings huge freedom. Confidence is a muscle and if you aren’t using it, you are losing it.
My clients come from every sector of society, politics, media, corporate world, and busy mums, but their neuroses are the same.
Know yourself. When you know who you are, and what you are trying to say, it makes it easier to dress yourself. The feedback to my Style Solution and free Facebook group Shine with Style has been incredible, for some clients genuinely transformative. But I still felt there was more that needed unearthing. Style was one thing but I felt the shift needed was much more fundamental
I decided to run the poll, just as a sort of a litmus test in order to align my approach with the needs of my audience. And was utterly gobsmacked, and upset, at the volume of those who felt unworthy due to
their size
Everything fell into place for me at that moment. I decided to run a FB live on Upgrading your Body Confidence and hundreds of viewers tuned in from as far away as Las Vegas, Sweden, Shanghai and Singapore.
Body image has taken a hammering, thanks to Covid (the isolation, the comfort eating, repetitive body-shaming messages like the Covid Stone etc) and I am determined to emancipate as many as I can from these limiting beliefs.
There is nothing like The Body Confidence Solution program anywhere in the world as I am the only Personal Stylist qualified as a QTT (Quantum Thinking Transformations) practitioner, bringing my clients gentle and profound transformation inside and out!
Style…it’s a feeling!
Sharon
xoxo
