You are Worthy and You Are Loved

Gosh their are so many articles about "how women are portrayed in the media" and "how to get rid of belly fat" and there are corporations devoted to these subjects, and advertisement campaigns. But here's the deal about getting angry about a society that values body types that don't exist- you're not going to change a corporation's mind. Or an entire culture's media views. I totally agree that we, as a media, misrepresent women and men, and it's unfair and it hurts people. It damages our society DEEP to our core. It ruins families and creates a lot of tears. I know this because I've lived it as a teenage girl.

I can't say that I'm completely "cured" of self-consciousness, because it creeps up from time to time when you live in this culture- and especially when you are a part of a college campus with 10,000+ girls your own age. It's REALLY easy to compare yourself and not feel good enough in a variety of ways. So instead of feeling badly about ourselves, and our media, and the way the whole image deal is wrapped up, what if we could actually DO something. Maybe not change the world, but change how you look at yourself and how you look at your friends and how you look at your children. And what if by changing the way YOU view things, other people may begin to value themselves in other ways?

We've all been caught in an awkward conversation with a friend when they're discussing "how fat they are" or "I feel like this shirt makes me look awful" or whatever fill-in-the-blank complaint they're pushing toward us. And it's kind of okay to talk about ourselves this way, as either self-talk or to a friend. And sometimes you can't escape those moments and you freeze up. But what if we started looking for situations to pull the good out of one another? And what if we completely ended "looks talk" all together? What if we stopped complimenting looks but we started congratulating each other on kindness, and innovation and intellect? We all have love cups, and will search for them to be filled in one fashion or another. It would mean so much more if a friend complimented my kindness or dedication instead of how pretty I looked.

Deleting all "looks talk" from your vocabulary completely is TOTALLY tangible. You can't change the media, but you really could inspire true beauty and worth in a way that won't fade with age.

You are worthy and you are loved and you are a whole human being who was created with a purpose with individual talents and dreams and goals, and that matters.

Gosh, what if we all believed that about ourselves?