Be the Woman You See
Just yesterday I saw an episode of "Extreme Weight Loss" and to my surprise it is actually a great show about taking a journey that is not just physical but more emotional. It is about accepting who we are and getting back the love of self. It is about the relationships between the people on the journey and the relationship they have with food and with themselves. At the core of it is the discovery that we are all worthwhile and that an addiction to food is like any other addiction and will always fail us. At one point in the show the person on the show received a room filled with exercise equipment and a saying on the wall that said: "Be the woman you want to be, not the one others see". I was impressed by these simple but profound words and it motivated me to write this BLOG. I can only hope it serves one person who is struggling with their image, specifically a woman.
We are bombarded by the media in every direction and we are seeing a rather limited view of what beautiful looks like. Often times the woman is not even a women but a teenager made up to look like an adult woman. She is usually a size 4 and although she may look unhealthy even anorexic young girls believe that this is the definition of beauty and they will strive to look like that and be a size 4. It isn't really about whether the girl or woman wants to look like that but more over that they feel like what they do look like is not enough. The way that magazines and ads depict women is saying to women that what they see in the mirror is not what is considered pretty. It takes a lot of self-esteem and self-love and confidence not to be affected by this constant message everywhere we turn: television, ads on the bus, billboards, magazines, window displays and music videos. The messages are so constant and in our face that you would have to be super woman to not be even a little upset. That is the goal of course.
Then there is the opinionated partner, husband, boyfriend or lover. Some have a lot to say about what needs physical fixing with the woman they are with, in spite of their own beer belly. We don't measure men with the same yardstick as we do women. Men can have meat on their body and the woman they are seeing is not evaluating them based on their fat content. Interesting to me that television ads don't focus very much on men's bodies and their physical image as they do women. I was surprised recently to see a commercial with a man cooking and being depicted as sexy, at one point in the ad his shirt buring off. Frankly, if we are going to continue to objectify women then I think we should pump up the volume and do the same with men. After all it is 2013 isn't it?
What it all boils down to is knowing who you are and standing up for what you look like in spite of the lies we see on TV and all around us. You are the goddess that "God made in his image" or more accurately, that goddess made in her image. After all it was a woman who carried us around for four months and helped bring us here. It is your feminine energy that automatically makes you beautiful, special and valuable. Source your inner goddess with confidence and be seen heard and witnessed. Don't let a freaking TV or ad speak for you, speak for yourself and speak loudly. You hold the light that makes you beautiful and enough. You hold the key to the healthiest body you want to have even if it does not look like the one on the magazine cover. Stop watching those ads and buying those magazines that lie about what a female should look like. Get rid of the guy who insists on you looking a certain way and being a particular image. Set your own criteria and see the beauty of who you are, making an inventory of all your assets. We are all a package. We are "not our hair" as India Arie would so accurately put it. Become the best version of who you already are and if it means physical transformation then do it because you love you. In the end the only person who needs to look like you, is you!
We are bombarded by the media in every direction and we are seeing a rather limited view of what beautiful looks like. Often times the woman is not even a women but a teenager made up to look like an adult woman. She is usually a size 4 and although she may look unhealthy even anorexic young girls believe that this is the definition of beauty and they will strive to look like that and be a size 4. It isn't really about whether the girl or woman wants to look like that but more over that they feel like what they do look like is not enough. The way that magazines and ads depict women is saying to women that what they see in the mirror is not what is considered pretty. It takes a lot of self-esteem and self-love and confidence not to be affected by this constant message everywhere we turn: television, ads on the bus, billboards, magazines, window displays and music videos. The messages are so constant and in our face that you would have to be super woman to not be even a little upset. That is the goal of course.
Then there is the opinionated partner, husband, boyfriend or lover. Some have a lot to say about what needs physical fixing with the woman they are with, in spite of their own beer belly. We don't measure men with the same yardstick as we do women. Men can have meat on their body and the woman they are seeing is not evaluating them based on their fat content. Interesting to me that television ads don't focus very much on men's bodies and their physical image as they do women. I was surprised recently to see a commercial with a man cooking and being depicted as sexy, at one point in the ad his shirt buring off. Frankly, if we are going to continue to objectify women then I think we should pump up the volume and do the same with men. After all it is 2013 isn't it?
What it all boils down to is knowing who you are and standing up for what you look like in spite of the lies we see on TV and all around us. You are the goddess that "God made in his image" or more accurately, that goddess made in her image. After all it was a woman who carried us around for four months and helped bring us here. It is your feminine energy that automatically makes you beautiful, special and valuable. Source your inner goddess with confidence and be seen heard and witnessed. Don't let a freaking TV or ad speak for you, speak for yourself and speak loudly. You hold the light that makes you beautiful and enough. You hold the key to the healthiest body you want to have even if it does not look like the one on the magazine cover. Stop watching those ads and buying those magazines that lie about what a female should look like. Get rid of the guy who insists on you looking a certain way and being a particular image. Set your own criteria and see the beauty of who you are, making an inventory of all your assets. We are all a package. We are "not our hair" as India Arie would so accurately put it. Become the best version of who you already are and if it means physical transformation then do it because you love you. In the end the only person who needs to look like you, is you!
Through the years, I can definitely say I've struggled with my self-image. However, the older and wiser I've grown, the more that I love my body. I love that I am FULL and curvacious. I love that I am a Latina with a LOT of flavor! And so I say, LOVE yourself in your natural body. Each person is unique and has their own form of beauty.
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