Connect
EMPOWERED WOMEN WE LOVE: PAMELA COOK
At barre3, we’re on a mission to help people feel empowered from within—but what does this mean, and how do you get there? Just like our class, there’s not a one-size-fits-all answer. Discovering your inherent strength can happen in a million different ways, but no matter how you get there, the end result is the same: When you’re empowered from within, you look inside yourself for answers and trust that you are your own best teacher.
In our Empowered Women We Love series, we talk to inspiring women from our diverse community who have tapped into their inherent strength to lead a life that’s empowered from within.
For some people, feeling empowered from within is a journey, often with a clear turning point that marks the moment in time when they stopped looking to others for the answers and instead started looking within themselves. Pam Cook is not one of those people.
A regular at barre3 N. Williams, in Portland, Ore., Pam is that rare person who knew who she was from a very early age (as she told us last spring, “I was born with an independent streak”) and has consistently trusted her intuition, even during life’s rockier moments. When we were dreaming up our Empowered Women We Love series, she was the first person we thought of.
Read on to learn how having female role models inspired Pam, why she chooses to look forward rather than back, and why her authentic self has nothing to do with what she looks like.
Barre3: What do you think society defines as the ideal woman?
Educated, professional, physically fit, confident, independent, type A. Realistically, I think the ideal women is who she determines she is. Through life lessons and exploration of self, she becomes the woman she is uniquely meant to be.
Barre3: What pressures have you experienced as a woman?
Pam: Jealousy. In my youth I was too skinny, too cute. As a young woman I was too skinny, too pretty. I’ve been dismissed, judged, snubbed, ignored, threatened all because of others’ perception of me.
Fortunately for me, though, from a really young age I’ve had women role models. I’ve always had women around me in positions of power. I just saw people doing their own thing, and that was really empowering for me.
Barre3: How have those pressures affected you?
Pam: It made me defensive and angry well into my twenties. Now I find the question dis-empowering. I’m not suggesting that our experiences don’t have merit—we’ve all been wounded and have the scars to prove it—but I don’t believe in continually breathing life into past injuries. All to often I hear women tell their story from a place of hurt and pain. At some point we need to stop telling our story from the standpoint of the victimized woman and stand strong in the face of our past.
Barre3: Was there a point at which you made a conscious decision to reject external pressures to be the “ideal” woman?
Pam: No, there wasn’t a conscious decision as much as there was an awareness over time that I realized my decisions were not the norm. I was fortunate early in my working career to have a few wonderful young women as mentors, and I do remember being completely enamored with their single, independent, carefree lifestyles.
Barre3: What does it feel like to live your truth?
Pam: Living my truth feels befitting. There is a life that each of us has been granted, and you can either live that life trapped by societal expectations or you can carve out a new pathway to discover your own light. I choose the light.
Barre3: When do you feel like your most authentic self?
Pam: My authentic self has nothing to do with what I look like physically. It’s all about feeling. As women I feel like we’re taught to focus on our outward appearance. We’re so fixated on how we look that we’ve lost the language of how we feel. When we learn to tap into how we’re feeling rather than how we look or how others perceive us, we’re taking the first step toward empowerment from within.
Barre3: What’s a time in your life when you felt the proudest of your body?
Pam: Right now. I worked 25 years in a physically demanding job and thought I was in good shape when I started taking classes at barre3. I stand corrected. I’ve never felt stronger and more balanced in my body than I do today.
Barre3: When do you feel most proud of yourself?
Pam: I feel most proud of myself when I selflessly show up for others. I’m also practicing say no without following it up with an excuse.
Barre3: How do you define empowerment?
Pam: As awareness of possibility. As hope. As the subtle nuances of daily life. As each breath that we breathe.
Barre3: How would you fill in the blank: “I feel empowered from within when ___.”
Pam: When I first wake up in the morning, in that split second just before my mind fully engages and I sense the gravity of my entire being.
Barre3: What if success in fitness weren’t defined by how you look?
Pam: I think that people would have greater success at achieving their fitness goals. The focus of getting fit and staying fit should be about feeling good in your body. There’s greater power in being healthy and feeling well than looking good. How you look is the secondary result of being fit.
Barre3: What would life as a woman feel like if the world didn’t judge you by external measures?
Pam: In the words of Lao Tzu, “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare and compete, everyone will respect you.”
Barre3: How do you feel after you finish a barre3 class?
Pam: I feel clean, refreshed and recharged.
Thank you, Pam, for inspiring us! To join the empowerment conversation, post a photo on Instagram with the caption: “I feel empowered from within when _________.” #barre3 #bempowered
And don’t forget to join us for our revolutionary January Challenge, designed to help you feel balanced in body and empowered from within. Get all the details and sign up here.
At barre3, we’re on a mission to help people feel empowered from within—but what does this mean, and how do you get there? Just like our class, there’s not a one-size-fits-all answer. Discovering your inherent strength can happen in a million different ways, but no matter how you get there, the end result is the same: When you’re empowered from within, you look inside yourself for answers and trust that you are your own best teacher.
In our Empowered Women We Love series, we talk to inspiring women from our diverse community who have tapped into their inherent strength to lead a life that’s empowered from within.
For some people, feeling empowered from within is a journey, often with a clear turning point that marks the moment in time when they stopped looking to others for the answers and instead started looking within themselves. Pam Cook is not one of those people.
A regular at barre3 N. Williams, in Portland, Ore., Pam is that rare person who knew who she was from a very early age (as she told us last spring, “I was born with an independent streak”) and has consistently trusted her intuition, even during life’s rockier moments. When we were dreaming up our Empowered Women We Love series, she was the first person we thought of.
Read on to learn how having female role models inspired Pam, why she chooses to look forward rather than back, and why her authentic self has nothing to do with what she looks like.
Barre3: What do you think society defines as the ideal woman?
Educated, professional, physically fit, confident, independent, type A. Realistically, I think the ideal women is who she determines she is. Through life lessons and exploration of self, she becomes the woman she is uniquely meant to be.
Barre3: What pressures have you experienced as a woman?
Pam: Jealousy. In my youth I was too skinny, too cute. As a young woman I was too skinny, too pretty. I’ve been dismissed, judged, snubbed, ignored, threatened all because of others’ perception of me.
Fortunately for me, though, from a really young age I’ve had women role models. I’ve always had women around me in positions of power. I just saw people doing their own thing, and that was really empowering for me.
Barre3: How have those pressures affected you?
Pam: It made me defensive and angry well into my twenties. Now I find the question dis-empowering. I’m not suggesting that our experiences don’t have merit—we’ve all been wounded and have the scars to prove it—but I don’t believe in continually breathing life into past injuries. All to often I hear women tell their story from a place of hurt and pain. At some point we need to stop telling our story from the standpoint of the victimized woman and stand strong in the face of our past.
Barre3: Was there a point at which you made a conscious decision to reject external pressures to be the “ideal” woman?
Pam: No, there wasn’t a conscious decision as much as there was an awareness over time that I realized my decisions were not the norm. I was fortunate early in my working career to have a few wonderful young women as mentors, and I do remember being completely enamored with their single, independent, carefree lifestyles.
Barre3: What does it feel like to live your truth?
Pam: Living my truth feels befitting. There is a life that each of us has been granted, and you can either live that life trapped by societal expectations or you can carve out a new pathway to discover your own light. I choose the light.
Barre3: When do you feel like your most authentic self?
Pam: My authentic self has nothing to do with what I look like physically. It’s all about feeling. As women I feel like we’re taught to focus on our outward appearance. We’re so fixated on how we look that we’ve lost the language of how we feel. When we learn to tap into how we’re feeling rather than how we look or how others perceive us, we’re taking the first step toward empowerment from within.
Barre3: What’s a time in your life when you felt the proudest of your body?
Pam: Right now. I worked 25 years in a physically demanding job and thought I was in good shape when I started taking classes at barre3. I stand corrected. I’ve never felt stronger and more balanced in my body than I do today.
Barre3: When do you feel most proud of yourself?
Pam: I feel most proud of myself when I selflessly show up for others. I’m also practicing say no without following it up with an excuse.
Barre3: How do you define empowerment?
Pam: As awareness of possibility. As hope. As the subtle nuances of daily life. As each breath that we breathe.
Barre3: How would you fill in the blank: “I feel empowered from within when ___.”
Pam: When I first wake up in the morning, in that split second just before my mind fully engages and I sense the gravity of my entire being.
Barre3: What if success in fitness weren’t defined by how you look?
Pam: I think that people would have greater success at achieving their fitness goals. The focus of getting fit and staying fit should be about feeling good in your body. There’s greater power in being healthy and feeling well than looking good. How you look is the secondary result of being fit.
Barre3: What would life as a woman feel like if the world didn’t judge you by external measures?
Pam: In the words of Lao Tzu, “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare and compete, everyone will respect you.”
Barre3: How do you feel after you finish a barre3 class?
Pam: I feel clean, refreshed and recharged.
Thank you, Pam, for inspiring us! To join the empowerment conversation, post a photo on Instagram with the caption: “I feel empowered from within when _________.” #barre3 #bempowered
And don’t forget to join us for our revolutionary January Challenge, designed to help you feel balanced in body and empowered from within. Get all the details and sign up here.
