A woman’s beauty is supposed to be her grand project and constant insecurity. We’re meant to shellac our lips with five different glosses, but always think we’re fat. Beauty is Zeno’s paradox. We should endlessly strive for it, but it’s not socially acceptable to admit we’re there. We can’t perceive it in ourselves. It belongs to the guy screaming “nice tits.”
When I ventured onto the interwebs this morning I discovered it is I Heart My Body day. This is a campaign which encourages us to remember that we are beautiful, even if we do not satisfy a conventional media model of perfection.
The thing that we are encouraged to forget is that we are all different, it is much easier to market to a demographic where we are encouraged to think that we are just the boxes that we tick: BMI this, height that, race x, eye colour that. And more than that we are encouraged to assess ourselves on a surface level. It sometimes seems that society pays more attention to what we look like than what we are. We are encouraged to spend money on cosmetics and to feel inadequate, but not encouraged to be kind and compassionate, either with others or ourselves.
Today is a day where we take a stand against this. Today is a day where we are encouraged to remember that every single one of us is beautiful. Where even though we may not live up to some media image of perfection we are perfect just as we are. We can change ourselves if we want, but right now, we are good.
After I saw the fact it was I Heart My Body Today and made that decision to join in the rallying cry of remembering that I am special, and that my body is amazing, I made a conscious effort to take a look at the tops of my arms. If there is any part of my body that I could magically transform, it would be them. So, I looked at them and took a moment to appreciate the strength that is found inside them, the fact that my arms allow me to give hugs and cuddles, to cook, and to just carry on regardless. Our bodies are amazing, if you take a moment to think of all of the things that your body allows you to do, it is absolutely amazing, and it’s pretty easy to say I love my body.
In the post about I heart my body, it asks if we can name three things about our bodies that we love. I’ll start:
- I love my eyes, they have a different spectrum of colours ranging from a light hazel brown to chocolate based on my state of mind and state of heart.
- I love the feel of my lips.
- I love my feet and ankles.
What do you love about your body, leave a comment and let me know.
Love and truth,
Trisha
I love that you have received the message of what I am trying to do here on We Heart Life loud and clear. We are all different and we need to understand that and realise that we all are beautiful and that we don’t need to try to meet society’s ideals of ‘normal’ or ‘beautiful’.
Thank you for sharing xx
Wonderful post, Trish! Really wonderful. Although, many may think my post today was anti-that it wasn’t. I hearted my body enough to do something about what I didn’t like, if that makes sense 😉
Anyway, what I do like: I love my eyes and hair (ok, those are cop-outs, as I stick out like a sore thumb, so put them as one), I love my scars (strangely, but they tell a story that I like) and I love my ever decreasing waist (because that’s what I like, not because that’s what society dictates).
PS. I think you should add a fourth: You have a lovely smile 😉
I’m so glad that you feel the same way I do… Love this post.you said what I wanted to say, just differently. 🙂