Oh, boy, here we go. Beauty, body image and self-esteem can often be the trifecta of pain for many women. Very few of us are completely happy and comfortable in our own skin. But why are we never good enough? And, in fact, who defined “good enough?” Whose standards are we striving for?
As women, we are bombarded daily, hourly, minute-by-minute, with images of “ideal” beauty. As Gisele Bundchen gazes from the cover of Vogue, or Angelina Jolie smiles at us from People, we constantly compare ourselves to these “standards,” and constantly fall short.
Why does it have to be this way? Why can’t “real” women be on the covers of magazines? Well, it’s all about marketing and money. With billions of consumer dollars up for grabs and heaps of competition, marketers have to work hard to show you that their product is something you can’t live without. And creating an unreachable standard of beauty is good for business – because the worse you feel, the more they sell.
The crazy part is, though, that this extraordinary beauty standard is, quite literally, unattainable. Check out the below video, created by Dove, to see why.
It’s madness to compare ourselves to these women because they don’t even exist!
So how can we reclaim and embrace our own individual beauty? Practice! Like any bad habit, you have to replace the behavior you wish to change. Try this experiment for the next 7 days. Before you walk out the door in the morning, sing Joe Cocker’s song “You Are So Beautiful” while looking in the mirror. Even if you don’t know all the lyrics, you can just sing those magical 4 words a few times! Don’t forget to look into your eyes as you sing it. Then throughout your day, if you catch self-defeating talk swimming around in your head, replace it with “You are SO beautiful.” Because contrary to what marketers would have you believe, you aren’t lacking anything, you are good enough, and you’re nothing short of gorgeous.
