Taking a break from my Fall Fashion Feature, I wanted to redirect you to some brilliantly-written blog entries by a couple people I know, and a couple I don't. Regardless, the message is very true.
Photo Credit
Love yourself in order to love other people.
♥ The first post I'm linking to is by a good friend of mine, who's older, wiser, and way more hilarious than I could ever hope to be. I love being around this girl. It's like being out in the sun. She makes me laugh, and I can scarce recall a situation when I was with her without a giant goofy smile on my face. She always looks for the best in every situation and every person, and, THANKFULLY, her unfailing optimism and perpetual hope for the best is contagious! I highly suggest surrounding yourself with people like her.
It is my contention that she is the way she is because she's grasped, at a very young age, what most people fail to realize in a lifetime: in order to live the fullest, best, most love-showering life you can, you need to be aware of (and comfortable with!) yourself. This awesome entry is entitled "Finding Yourself" V. "Loving Yourself." She makes the excellent point that the cliched term "finding yourself" is totally different from acceptance, respect, and love for youself. Read it! An excerpt:
"I believe that coming into your own is not a sole, personal mission that you work on consistently, but a life-time of experiences. I believe that coming into your own means allowing others to assist you, help you, and love you. Lastly, I feel that earning your identity comes from learning from your mistakes, and disallowing your stubborness and pride. It comes from taking the advice that you don't want to hear....but need to."
I told you. WISE.
♥ The second post I'm pointing you to is by the illustrious blogger, Gala Darling. If you've never read her blog, I HIGHLY suggest you do. She is an inspiration, and just overall a wonderful human being. While I don't blindly obey everything she puts forward, every once in a while she publishes something that's just so true. I felt like this entry, Radical Self-Hate? Stop the Madness! embodies an issue that's kind of a big deal right now. That being the issue of food and body image. It's so sad that we've become a culture of obese people who, oddly enough, demonize food. I know SO many girls who, every time we sit down to dinner, are like, "Oh gosh. I'm so sorry, but I have to get that 480 calorie muffin. I just have to!" First of all. I do not require an apology for you EATING, and you certainly don't need to give me one! Secondly, the muffin is not your enemy. Don't use "480" as a synonymous adjective for "EVIL AND VILE." It's not. Eat what you like. Balance it out with healthy food. The best metaphor for me, personally, is the one about your body being like a car, and it requires maitenence...the better fuel you put in, the better the performance, blah blah blah. I like it. And it makes sense to me. Put good in, get good out. And sometimes good is a cupcake. AND THAT'S OKAY.
"Until we can all learn to accept & EMBRACE our bodies as the FLAWED MIRACLES that they are, this nonsense will continue. As long as you buy tabloids which speculate about celebrity weight gain or loss, we are all suckers. As long as you participate in “body snark”, discuss the appearance of other people, or give a crap about what size pants you wear, you are totally & 100% buying into it!...Radical self-hate is bullshit, & standing by & being a silent witness to it is almost as bad."
Ignore the donut fellatio pic. I have no idea, okay?
♥ On the flipside, The Gloss posted a really great article featuring the other side of the food debate: "Accepting Different Body Types Doesn't Mean You Have to Hate Skinny Girls." This is so true. A lot of people are all like, "CURSE YOU, SKINNY BITCHES!" But if the naturally thin girls said the same thing about "you fat heiffers" or something like that, there'd be an outcry. It's like reverse racism (which IS a legit problem and pisses me off, but is a rant for another day).
My mom was one of those naturally skinny girls. At 5'11, she weighed about 110 pounds for years. She tried so hard to put on weight, eating milkshakes and double cheeseburgers about 5 times a week just trying to put on some pounds. She always tells me that she was so jealous of girls built like me--short with curves--because we looked like girls. The kids in school made fun of her all the time for being so tall and thin, things like "Scarecrow" and "Jolly Green Giant." My mom's never had awful self-esteem. She accepted herself for how she was, despite the taunts she received.
So be careful about hating on thin girls. "Thin" is a body type, too.
♥ And lastly, this one isn't quite as strongly about self-appreciation, but I feel like it's relevant nontheless. My friend, the Flying Film-maker, wrote a blog post about dancing. He discusses some of his favorite dancing tunes (awesome list, btw), and it kind of goes into a belief of mine: dancing with yourself is highly therapeutic. We tend to like the people we dance with, otherwise we wouldn't dance with them. YOU count, too! He also ends with a touch of romanticism, which optimistically restores hope into the hearts of the hopeful romantics (you know you secretly are one, don't deny!). GO READ IT NOW.
"This is why I’ll dance to “Iris.” This is why I’ll still dance, even if there is nobody else."
Learning to love, respect, accept and appreciate yourself is not the same as being self-absorbed and vain. It's a fine line, to be sure, but I think I'd rather err on the side of like than hate.
A friend of mine, who's a reverend, told me once that loving yourself is Biblical, that the Lord commands to "Love one another as you love yourself." It furthers the thought that we can't truly love other people until we recognize what a "fearful and wonderful" creation we are. If it takes one to know one, we need to realize how awesome we are before we can find the awesomeness in others.
Dancing With Myself
Photo Credit
Still not sure how to proceed? Gala Darling (once again!) wrote a list of "100 Ways You Can Start Loving Yourself Right Now."
What do you think? What do you do to show appreciation to the wonderful person you are? Enjoy, Dearest Readers.
No comments:
Post a Comment