No Front Teeth? Not a Problem!

Rock Your Imperfections!!!

And when I start thinking, there is nothing that can make me feel uncomfortable, life gives me some experience to prove me wrong…

The way I look has always been an important thing for me.

Not sure why and it doesn’t matter really.

What matters is that it created insecurities. It stopped me from doing things. I simply never felt pretty enough, good enough, perfect enough, worthy of appreciation, attention. I never felt likable. And of course, I always found plenty of facts to confirm that.

First not big enough boobs.

Then my vitiligo (Look it up, if curious). Cured that myself. No doctors knew what the hell they were doing.

Then I wasn’t thin enough, or tall enough, or my nose was too big, or butt was too big, or too small. Or I wasn’t tall enough, or lean enough…

There was always something.

When we want to find an excuse not to do things, not to get out there, not to get any attention to our greatness, we can always find OR create that excuse to do just that — do nothing and stay an example of mediocrity.

Mediocrity is a choice.

Anyone can be great. Not everyone chooses to. Not saying it doesn’t require work to be extraordinary, but most often, it’s not the work that scares us. It’s the attention and the fear of not being good enough to deserve that attention. And even worse getting the attention and being made fun of, having people criticize us about exact thing, we think is not perfect.

I changed things about myself. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. Spiritually.

And most important transformation for me was accepting myself exactly as I am. No matter how perfect or imperfect. Love me or leave me. I don’t fucking care anymore. I love myself and I believe I AM, in fact perfect, with all the imperfections. Perfect for my life. Perfect for the work I came here to do. Perfect for the moment. For the journey.

There is no end to improvement. But improvement is not about perfection. It’s about growth. Physical. Mental. Emotional. Spiritual. Daily.

As one of my mentors said (Tony Robbins), “In this life we are either growing or dying.” I choose to grow. Mostly inside. Invisible. Like an Iceberg.

So I thought I got pretty good at self-acceptance, self-love, the art of no-giving-a-fuck.

And then I had to walk without my front teeth for a while.

Literally.

And I am a health/lifestyle/fitness coach, image consultant, model — the way I look, it does have an impact on what I do. So not having my front teeth was a big thing for me. Even for a little while. Temporarily. Even if I didn’t have to do much public stuff. Even if I didn’t have anything important on the calendar.

Still. First couple of days — I felt miserable. Really miserable. I cried in the dentist’s office when he said I have 2 weeks without my teeth ahead. I didn’t want to cry. I actually felt stupid and silly when I started crying and couldn’t stop. Felt like an immature baby.

And I realized that my looks is still a thing for me. Important thing. Yes, it is important for what I do and what I want to do (some TV, interviews, photo shoots ahead) and I love to smile to people. I miss my smile (Not mentioning I love having full set of teeth to chew). But I knew it was temporal. Why would I cry? Cause I still thought it’s important to impress with my looks, part of which is smile, impress people I meet, my friends, my clients. Some part of me still believed I can’t be worthy of anyone’s attention, or likability, or compliments, or I couldn’t bring value to people, if I didn’t look my best.

That part of me had to go.

Cause, you know, it’s life.

Shit happens. We get older. We get injured. Anything can happen. These bodies are fragile.

Something inside of us not though.

And I had to learn that. I had to be reminded of that before going further in life. I had to understand what I am about once more and it’s not my looks, even though taking care of yourself is always important.

So I made peace with myself again. Teeth or no teeth.

I went outside. I went to the gym. I went to meet my old friends I haven’t seen forever. I laughed. I talked to people. I helped people. I continued my 5-smiles-back-from-strangers challenge daily.

This is life. Shit happens. We lose teeth. But so what?

We are not how we look. We are not what we have. And we are not what we think about ourselves.

Kind heart.

Helping people the best way I can.

Being the change I want to see in the world.

Inspiring people.

Daily improvement.

Living life to the fullest and inspiring action, inspiring people to do the same.

That’s what I’m about. Teeth or no teeth. Whatever.