Everyone struggles with body image at some point in their lives. Both women and men.
Some deal with it a big chunk of their lifetimes.
The way we are built physically depends a lot on our genetics. Obviously, if our parents are short and the majority of our family members are also short, we can’t expect to be tall. Our facial features will obviously resemble those of our parents and/or other relatives.
Body image misperceptions and beliefs can be psychologically damaging, could lead to depression or just a feeling of being “stuck” in life. This is very common among women, but it also exists in men.
Women feel they are not thin enough. Not pretty enough. Lips not full enough. Nose not straight enough. Hips too wide…or not wide enough. Legs too thin…or not thin enough. Buttocks not big enough…or too big. Breasts not full enough…or too full. Skin not light enough…or too pale or too white.
Men who want a six pack, or those who pride themselves on their pot belly. Men who don’t feel tall enough…
And on and on it goes.
We live in a society and, in fact, world that places a lot of emphasis on the exterior, on looks, on what they consider pretty, beautiful, or feminine enough. Or handsome enough.
The runway models who are often stick thin, the actresses and celebrities whose looks we adore and worship.
If only we could just look behind the scenes and see how much work goes into making them look the way they look.
A whole team of people, the best of the best, expensive clothes, shoes, and striking the right pose at the right time in the perfect setting and lighting. The perfect fan in the right place blowing their hair a certain way. Body enhancements and injections on a regular basis to get the “perfect look.”
And the thin models…well, what can I say? You really cannot eat much of anything to stay that thin as an adult. They do consciously watch what they eat.
So you already know, from reading my previous blogs, that I believe our worth and value is on the inside. We must be valued with what our hearts and souls carry and how we will use this to change the world for good.
But…body image is the big elephant in the room. I wish it wasn’t as important as it’s made to be by society, but since women—and men—secretly experience pain in their hearts, sadness, frustration, and depression from their body images, it has to be discussed.
If your weight is causing YOU emotional and psychological disease, ailments, and disorders, you must do something about it.
In other words, if your doctor has told you your weight is too high or too low, please follow the advice on measures to take. If you are getting arthritis, can’t walk up and down stairs, and are still relatively young—below 70 years old—or you’re prediabetic or prehypertensive and so on, please take action and make changes. If your doctor is telling you your weight is getting dangerously low, please take appropriate advice and measures.
If you can’t sleep at night, cry yourself to sleep, binge eat even more from sadness from your weight, or you envy and detest others who are at the weight you want to be at, you need to take measures to live a healthier lifestyle, and heal your psychological state, and show up more confident. Otherwise, you will keep suffering in silence and you’ll limit your goals and your true life purpose.
These are the only instances where I feel help must be sought and you must take control and full responsibility to change your own life.
As per all the other plastic surgical interventions to enhance parts of your body, I will respectfully say, I don’t believe in them. That is my personal opinion. There is absolutely no surgery that can fix the condition of our hearts and souls. The number of plastic surgery procedures a person has had are many times directly proportional to the intensity of the chaos of the heart. Again, that is my personal opinion. Plastic surgery is an easy superficial Band-Aid approach.
Obviously, a person born with unsightly deformities or who is unfortunate to experience injuries that are deforming should absolutely undergo plastic repairs and fixes.
Buttock implants, lip injections, liposuction, breast implants, brow lifts, nose jobs…all are temporary fixes. None of them make you a better person. None of them make you more desirable. None of them contribute to your life purpose, and certainly none will bring you permanent happiness.
Again, this is my personal opinion. Remember, we all have free will.
I personally have parts of my body I’m not crazy about. I used to be more self-conscious of them, and when I was younger, I avoided wearing clothes that would expose those areas. Now, as an adult, I wear a wide variety of clothes as long as I feel awesome in them, and that gives me a strut in my step, the perfect sway, a big smile, and the most confident stance.
I have focused much more on the state of my insides—my heart and soul. I nourish and ground myself spiritually, and I also take care of my body the natural way—I eat right most of the time, and I exercise often. Please refer to my blog on “Taking Care of Our Bodies the Natural Way”—for a refresher.
The healthier my spiritual state is, the more I glow from the outside because I have peace. The more I ground myself spiritually, the more I have the energy and zeal to work out and take good care of myself because I recognize my value in this world. If you’re not grounded spiritually, you’ll find it hard to pinpoint your value in life, your life purpose. You’ll find yourself running around in circles-chasing your own tail, because your soul is unstable.
Spiritual work comes first. But your spirit also needs a healthy physical life to thrive. Our physical and spiritual lives feed off of one another.
Permanent Happiness requires three steps that must be going on simultaneously: nourishing our spiritual and physical lives is one of the steps.
Unfortunately, cosmetic surgery doesn’t fit into any of the steps. Neither does justification of your weight, if it is causing you physical, physiologic, emotional, and psychological diseases and disorders.
We must be careful as adults and not mislead kids, the youth, and other adults by justifying our weight, either obese or anorexic, because we want to make ourselves feel good. I see pages/posts like these on social media—obviously obese adults justifying their weight. Kids and teenagers are reading this and getting confused or following the trend.
Obesity leads to a large number of the illnesses and deaths in our world today. We must be careful not to justify it in order to make ourselves feel good selfishly. Neither should we confuse our kids by encouraging them to starve in order to be thin.
Body image is a book in itself. This is just a sneak preview of my thoughts.
I hope you will take care of yourselves the natural way, eat nutritious foods in the right proportion, move daily for at least 30 minutes, drink lots of water, find spiritual health, reduce stress, be healthy, have a good body image…and be permanently happy.