So it’s morning, and you’re getting dressed for work. And who are you dressing for?
When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
Do you love the person looking back at you?
Are you wearing the clothes that make you feel amazing?
Do you like what is reflected back at you, or do you focus on the faults?
I know that until recently, it was standard for me to survey myself in the mirror, and immediately look for the stuff that made me feel flawed.
And if you too don’t love that reflection, you are not alone. You’re actually part of the majority. And our society was designed that way, to make you feel separate and freaky.
We are programmed to disapprove of ourselves. It’s what fuels commerce in our Western society; after all, we consume more when we believe that the “fix” is in some new product, service, or group.
“From an early age women are exposed to statements and clichés, masked as advice, that dictate how we should look if we want to be accepted.”
That’s from the Dove site, which is doing all it can to break those old beliefs up and grind them under our feet.
But rejoice! As the world awakens, we are slowly breaking out of that cage.
From advertisers celebrating the diversity in the female form, to celebrities dissing Photoshop, we are learning that the difference between US and THEM…or ME and HER…really isn’t that disparate.
They have wrinkles! Their clothes rip! They bulge in places that we bulge too. Magnificent!
These are just a couple of examples of how our world is changing to be more acceptable of the natural diversity inherent in humanity.
We don’t all have to be the same anymore! How refreshing is that?
The more that the media uses “real world” examples, with a variety of models in the various sizes, shapes and colors that humans have chosen as avatars, the faster we’ll shatter that ridiculous web of enslavement we’ve entrapped ourselves in all this time. (And no self-blame please, since you’re the both oppressor and the oppressed at once.)
Try taking a real look at yourself in the mirror from every angle; even those that show your bulges, wrinkles, freckles and moles. Try finding five parts of you that you really like. Focus on them.
Try choosing clothes that you feel like wearing, based on your mood, or maybe the weather, or perhaps because that was what was laying around and it felt easiest to put on. Focus on how you feel when you’re wearing them.
You’re awake now, and every day you’ll break further and further away from the powerlessness you were taught to believe was the real you. You are creating it, my friend, so make it good.
author: Kimberly
