Women's Bodies seem to be getting a major hit from media coverage these days. The latest I've heard is there are blogs that promote how it is cool to be anorexic. The promotion an obsession with top Hollywood star's diminishing bodies as a form of worship or adulation for fans who wish to emulate those bodies. Some of the statements from participants say if they are going to die, they prefer to die skinny. Another frightening connection between the affect of the media and advertising on anorexia is that in Fij, where women and girls have been naturally bigger for millenia, there was no anorexia until they introduced advertising!
Hmmm ...
There's not a lot of press out there that supports how women WANT to live. Is it my imagination or even since Oprah left the daily television screen There has been an outcry for women to find ways to enjoy women who just love being women, no matter what their size? Oprah's departure has brought me to think that many of us now need to step up and claim the pride in ourselves that she inserted on; while in the same breath expressing her exasperation and pain with being a woman in her body and unable to conquer binge eating habits or those emotional ups and downs.
For me, Oprah was the queen of championing that the ups and downs of being a woman are perfectly powerful, perfectly normal and part of everyday life.
The concept of "perfect" was skillfully destroyed by Oprah's at one and the same time larger than life success and vulnerability.
Women do NOT need to be perfect to be powerful.
But women DO need to accept the power of the imperfection of their body.
Women's Bodies are CONSTANTLY changing through our lives.
Daily - we face the ordinal of having to see new variations in our bodies, thoughts, feelings, and we have pressures to maintain a certain grooming level to keep up appearances. Physically, our body changes depending on our cycle, our mood, the argument we had last night, the worry we have for our kids, the joy of having a new flirtation or a great conversation with a friend. Women's bodies are somehow the most fluctuating thing on the planet! Just smelling a flower can make a woman change!
My question is: WHY ARE WOMEN'S BODIES CONSTRUCTED TO CHANGE SO MUCH?
Sure - biologically we have to adapt to crazy wild painful things like giving birth! And hormonal driven changes like lactating, ovulating and bleeding ... or not bleeding.
Fine - those are some biological reasons why women's bodies fluctuate so much.
But sure - there is something we are underestimating in the POWER of women to change with the demands of nature AND time and so many different influences in their life.
Women's bodies are the place where we SURRENDER to change. When you get - really get - that change is a part of you, change is a DAILY part of your life - that CHANGE can happen in a moment - then you get the power that comes from women's bodies.
WE are not in control of our bodies, our bodies by their very design are designed to change. AND your body is designed to teach the power of change, growth, different experiences, different emotions, strength AND vulnerability, thin and fat, happy and sad, angry and peaceful.
WOW - we need MORE women to come out and just breathe - let their belly hang out and say - it's OK to be a woman and not be perfect.
The media will forever tell women their body should look this way or that way - that's the nature of the advertising beast. Advertising feeds on our weaknesses.
So how do WOMEN - turn their weakness into a strength?
The modern woman spends so much time worrying about wrinkles and getting rid of belly fat that we've forgotten the whole point of being a woman. "Aging" starts from the moment you are an embryo. Think about this: AT ANY MOMENT YOU ARE AGING.
Women's Bodies can embrace that CHANGE, IMPERFECTION and BEING REAL are just as POWERFUL as anything the media, advertising or anyone else is going to tell you.
Face it - you were born with a body to experience change. So ... ENJOY IT! And notice - how do you respond to change in your body?
Ask yourself: Can you accept that even if you are not perfect - you are fine just the way you are?
And more pointedly ask your BODY: HOW can you ENJOY YOUR BODY, even if it is not perfect? What can you do for your body to be it's friend? What does your body truly wish to do?
Just try asking this to yourself and see what answer comes to mind. YOUR BODY is waiting for you to listen to it and treat it as your friend.
There's a lot of people out there trying to make your body your enemy --- do not let them .
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