Imagine waking up one morning to discover that you are fully utilizing your particular talents, that you are in excellent physical condition, and that your life is rich and fulfilled.
Now consider how much time and money you've devoted to achieving the cultural ideal of feminine beauty. Dieting costs the United States more than $45 billion every year.
People devote a significant portion of their lives to researching the latest diet, preparing menus, worrying over food choices, starving themselves, and engaging in forms of exercise they dislike. There's a lot more to life than the never-ending struggle to transform one's physique into the cultural beauty ideal.
It does not have to be this. People used to identify themselves far more by who they were and what they did in the world before the dieting obsession. Instead of wasting their time attempting to look beautiful, they spent their lives enriching the surrounding environment. They concentrated on their family, community, and individual abilities.
Women are now quietly encouraged to define themselves solely by their appearance. And the look we've been trained to want isn't even possible. Although only 5% of women are overweight, 87 percent of the actresses we see on TV are. And what about models?
Not only have their images been heavily retouched to address blemishes, but "they're typically 5'9" and weigh less than 100 pounds. At 5'4 ", the average American who weighs 140 pounds no matter how hard she tries, she'll never look like this plastic-coated model.
We could use some time and money we spend striving to look like those actresses and models on living a more fulfilling life. In the desperate search for beauty, there comes sadness. Celebrities starving themselves into skeletal bodies is unnerving. Accepting our lovely bodies and putting our lives energies and money into creating a meaningful contribution to the world around us is so much more graceful.
We all have so much more to offer than simply attempting to meet a cultural beauty standard. You are stunning right now, just the way you are.
Take control of your life from the media machine. You are more than the "outward appearance" you project to the world. Hopes, dreams, abilities, and the potential for a happy, fulfilling life are within every one of us. Life goes by quickly. Instead of pursuing unreachable beauty and thinness, make it a memorable experience.
