How many magazines in the supermarket check-out line tell you how to be a size 6 (or smaller) and how to be sexy and thin? Do you succumb to that pressure? Do those messages affect your self-image?
For many years, and at a fairly subconscious level, it affected how I saw myself. Those magazines and the dozens and dozens of other media messages showing and telling us what the ideal American woman looks like wormed their way into my mind to the point where I tried far too many diets. I lost weight, gained it back, lost it again. What a vicious cycle.
Now for me it's about being healthy and feeling good. It's about being the best Sonia I can be. Life is about being serene, content with what I have and who I am and bringing as many of the "seeds of love" into the world as possible (the subject of last Friday's blog). I want to eat in a healthy way, exercise, get the sleep I need, find the types of self-care that nourish me and allow me to do my best work and be my most loving and compassionate self.
I don't want to beat myself up with images of thin women. I want to be a healthy weight, but I no longer worry about what my dress size is.
What about you? Do you have a different perspective now than you did a few years ago? Or a different one from mine? I'd love to hear what you think about these messages with which we're surrounded. Please add your comments below. Maybe we can even start a conversation about weight, dress size, and a self-image that doesn't depend on those things.
Bingo! Size 6 doesn't sound as good to me now, and I rather like inhabiting a mature woman's body. There are certain things that often "beckon to me" (especially fries, sweets, and particularly chocolate). I try to limit the times I indulge myself on these (well, less so for chocolate, I'm afraid), and it's amazing how much pleasure I can find in favorite fruits, sugar-free ice-cream, cold milk, etc. I just pay attention a little more, and there seems to be a long-term cumulative effect when I say no to these items most of the time. Cheryl
ReplyDeleteOh, isn't that so true! It is possible to find pleasure in other things (though I still find lots of pleasure in chocolate, too, though less of it than I did years ago).
ReplyDeleteAnd there is something sweet about appreciating and "inhabiting a mature woman's body," isn't there? It's good to be comfortable in our own skin. And for me, at least, that's been a lifelong journey.
How about the rest of you? Where are you with weight and self-image issues?