School and work are back in session now after the holiday break, and awards season is here, too. That's less relevant to day-to-day life, but I admit that, as a filmophile, I really do enjoy hearing about seeing what shows/movies/screenplays/etc. are recognized every year, and my mum and I share the guilty pleasure of talking about red carpet fashions and hairstyles. We also always appreciate that there's been a recent movement towards more diversity in body image, with people being more honest about photo editing and makeup trips. Media representations of what is "normal" still have a long way to go, but at least there is more awareness nowadays that most of the images that we see aren't realistic.
healthyplace.com
On a related note . . . I posted a few days ago about New Year's resolutions and the value of flexibility, nourishment, and self-respect over restriction and limitation and self-hate, and I want to touch on this again as it relates to facing our fears and moving forward with our lives so that we can be happy, productive, meaningful members of life. I know from experience that it can be easy to become very obsessive about things/rules/etc. that we see presented to us in the media. Dieting and fitness-ing are super "in" right now. If you're in Lycra and have a SoulCycle habit, you're cool. Beautiful. Successful. And while I'm all for people doing things that make them happy and healthy, there are times when the pressure to be the Lycra-SoulCycle-chick is actually super detrimental to us. When we congratulate ourselves for making our lives small and for hyper-focusing on things like what we're eating and how much we're exercising, we limit our potential to do meaningful things and we put our health at risk at the same time. It's a double-whammy!
Here's the truth: all our bodies are DIFFERENT. While running long distances may be fun and healthy for one girl, gentler forms of movement may be better for another, and the sort of lifestyle choices we make are subject to change over time based on what our situations are.
Don't compare yourself to other people.
There are much better things you could be doing with your time!
I know, I know--this is much easier said than done. One of the reasons I'm writing this is that a few days ago I a had a revelatory moment while standing in the middle of Goodwill with my mum. We were dropping off a donation and popped into the store to quickly take a peek at the racks of old sweaters, flannels, and dresses, and I realized just how much I needed to fix my perception of wellness. In the past, I too fell victim to so much of what the world tells us about what is "healthy," and I've been working on getting over many of the "rules" that I've set for myself over the years. With the new year here, I'm committing to a lot of things (the environment, writing, reading . . . .), and one of them is to finally break away from the limiting beliefs propagated by our image-focused culture.
We're surrounded by so many edited, filtered images and presentations of "health" that our expectations for ourselves are totally distorted. We look in the mirror and expect to see features that are for many of us physically impossible, and, if we do achieve the renowned "thigh gap" or "six pack," it's often at the expense of our health in other areas. I saw a fitness ad recently that said "Once you see results, you're addicted." This message made me sad because changing our bodies can become addictive, and if taken too far, it can mess up our lives in really big ways. The things that we obsess over controlling eventually control us. Don't sacrifice your mental and physical health and your ability to live a meaningful life just because our culture glamorizes hardcore fitness and dieting.
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