Michelle Paisley Hicks is the owner/director of Yoga Junction, a yoga and healing arts studio in Suisun Valley.

There was once a time in my life when I obsessed on my weight. Growing up skinny in an Italian family was unacceptable, and not finishing your heaping plate of home-cooked pasta was considered a personal insult.

As a teen-aged girl, I was confronted by all those societal images of perfection like all of my peers, and thoughts of diets and bikinis consumed my mind. Looking back at pictures of myself at that time, it's hard to imagine I ever thought I was fat, but I know I did. And those thoughts followed me into early adulthood, as year after year my one highest aspiration at the dawn of a New Year was to lose at least 10 pounds, no matter how much I weighed at the time.

That changed a few years ago for me. After years of trying, I finally became pregnant with my second child. It was a rough pregnancy, since I was confined to total bed rest after just four months. My body went to mush, and I gained a lot of weight, but after the allure of staying home from work and watching TV and reading wore off, I had nothing to do but look deep within.

That New Year, my highest goal was to have a healthy baby, which I happily did on Jan. 7. And going through a natural birth gave me a whole new perspective on what I could do with my body.

This time around, I did not look at the after-effects of childbirth in the mirror with disdain. Instead, just a month after the baby was born, I started to move my body, just a little bit, every day. I worked on the critical dialogue in my mind, changing each thought into positive feedback. I meditated deeply on what it was that I truly wanted; was it a better body, or a happy, healthier life? And I discovered that when I felt truly fulfilled, everything else seemed to fall into place. I started making better choices all around, and felt stronger, inside and out.

Several months later, I found myself teaching yoga at a popular gym. At my first staff meeting, I walked into a conversation among several aerobics instructors. Now, mind you, these were beautiful women who epitomized our cultural ideal of slender and fit. But what do you think they were talking about? They were all complaining about how fat they were.

So, you see, it doesn't matter whether you're Cindy Crawford, Oprah or Anna Nicole Smith. What we're all searching for has nothing to do with weight; it has to do more with substance. Who are you under your skin? Where is your true self? And what would happen if you weren't consumed with thoughts of losing or even gaining weight? Just think of the things you could accomplish!