Soar

By Amulya Chava

Almost every one of us has experienced self-doubt and limiting beliefs. These may have stemmed from early childhood, adolescence, school, the family that we were born into, and so on. Regardless of the origin, it is evident that these negative thought patterns can do more harm than good. They can stop you from pursuing your life’s deepest dreams and goals to even not allowing you to live a peaceful life on a day to day basis. Especially in today’s world, young women are feeling immense pressure to live up to the expectations of society and are starting to value the opinions of others over their own well-being. Everyone deserves to live a life without limitations and be truly value themselves. In this book, the author draws important lessons from her own personal experiences on how to overcome self-doubt and cultivate a healthy amount of self-belief. By sharing her story, the author’s hope is for everyone to free themselves of thought patterns that are holding them down and truly soar…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: May 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781982247256

Amulya Chava

Amulya Chava is a college student studying political science in hope to attend law school. She works with organizations such as Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Wounded Warrior Project to help raise funds for veterans in her community. Chava enjoys speaking about her passions and expressing herself through activities such as competing in pageants. She served as founding president of her high school’s Wounded Warrior Project chapter and held titles such as Miss Beverly Hills teen. In her free time, she loves to bake and hang out with friends and family. Chava hopes to encourage other young women to recognize their potential to achieve their dreams and learn to be accepting of who they are as individuals.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Amulya Chava.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-9822-4724-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-4725-6 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 05/04/2020

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgment

About the Author

Prologue

Part 1: The Path to Self-Acceptance/Self-Love

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Part 2: The Path to SOAR!

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Dedication

For every young woman out there, because

every woman has the power to soar so high

Acknowledgment

Firstly, thank you to my mom for always encouraging me to be who I am and supporting me in all my goals. You have taught me how to be strong and bold. None of this would be possible without you. I love you.

I would like to acknowledge all those in the pageant world who have helped me and continue to help me grow. Thank you for allowing me to find my true potential and become unapologetic about who I am. Pageantry has been such an empowering part of my life. I love all of you, and I cannot wait for the journey ahead.

Finally, thank you to my sister for always lifting me up and encouraging me. You are a light of positivity and keep those around you optimistic. Cheers to the best sister in the world!

About the Author

Pictureofme1.jpg

Amulya Chava is a college student studying political science in hope to attend law school. She works with multiple veterans’ organizations to help raise funds for veterans in her community. Chava enjoys speaking about her passions and expressing herself through activities such as competing in pageants. She served as founding president of her high school’s Wounded Warrior Project chapter and actively participates in pageants as well. In her free time, she loves to bake and hang out with friends and family. Chava hopes to encourage other young women to recognize their potential to achieve their dreams and learn to be accepting of who they are as individuals.

Prologue

"You fight like a girl or throw like a girl." Phrases like these are seen as an insult in our society. From the moment we are born, society already has expectations set for us. Young girls are expected and taught to carry feminine and girl-like characteristics. They are surrounded and pressured by gender roles and stereotypes from a very early age. For some reason, doing something like a girl is seen in a negative light. Girls are conditioned from an early age to believe that they are less powerful, less strong, and less capable than their male counterparts. This conditioning happens in so many ways. For example, many of us have grown up watching classic movies of a pretty looking princess whose problems are solved when a prince charming comes and sweeps her off her feet. This causes little girls to think that their self-worth is based on being perceived as attractive by a male in order to be accepted by him. Their young minds are subconsciously starting to believe that getting male acceptance is the ultimate goal in life. They start to develop a rigid idea of what it means to be beautiful and try to fit into that idea. I am not saying we should rob these little girls of their childhood by banning these classic movies. But it is important that we take the time to educate girls from a tender age about self-love and self-acceptance so that they do not feel an incessant need to be what society is telling them to be. It is crucial for these girls to know that they are capable of so much and that the world is their oyster. They can make ANYTHING happen for themselves and their ultimate goal in life is not simply to gain male acceptance and try to fit into societal standards of what it means to be a girl. They need to know that they do not NEED a prince charming to know their self-worth. Of course, there isn’t anything wrong with wanting a prince charming…but they should not be tying their self-worth to it. They need to believe that they are just as powerful, strong, and capable as their male peers. Doing something like a girl should not be an insult. In many cases, the mindsets that these girls develop as children prevail as they grow older. In school, they feel the pressure to be perfect, pretty, and gain popularity and the acceptance of their peers. This pressure isn’t just contingent to looks, but the way they act as well. Many young girls feel the need to behave in a way that is not a true reflection of their personality. For example, girls that are interested in activities that are considered masculine are at times ridiculed and referred to as a tom boy. Things like this can cause girls to avoid expressing their interests in order to be deemed as perfect and get approval from those around them. The constant strive for acceptance and perfection often causes us to fall into a toxic cycle of trying to fit into societal standards and please others.

In one word – no. This social conditioning and expectations that women face can have very serious consequences and limit their true potential. We women began to value the opinions of others more than anything. We fear not being good enough or perfect. We obsess and beat ourselves up over any flaws that we may think we have. Many women step back from expressing themselves and doing what they love because they fear disapproval from others. In the end, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to love and value who we are.

In order to avoid societal disapproval, young girls are also expected to stay inside a box known as gender stereotypes. The thing is… expectations result in realities. Societal expectations limit