This is a hard blog for me to write.
The world of celebrity and advertisement is in our DNA. I know that sounds dramatic and over blown but we as a society have never been without it. It has gone on for so long, and it has created a billion dollar industry. We keep it alive. The reason it’s hard for me is because I believe in that industry. I have been part of that industry.
It does a lot of good. Like anything else, we have to accept the positive, the negative and the nature of it.
Like we talk about in the episode, a large part of advertising and celebrity, is selling a fantasy. Selling: “The perfect relationship.” Getting the most amazing body.” The “You buy this… you’ll look like that” concept. You get the picture. The truth is that’s their job. How we respond to that… is our job.
What concerns me personally is that I would take all of that information that was fed to me through many medias into my everyday life. Striving to obtain and acquire the best and latest thing that would change my life and finally make me happy! Which would be great for a short time but it never lasted. Plus, keeping up with all of that is exhausting. It’s like bad processed food. You think it feels good while eating it but it leaves you bloated and wanting more. It always leaves you wanting more!
I realized buying into all of this was becoming a problem for me especially when I started to compare myself, not just to models, actors, etc., but to the people in my life. This is not about jealousy. This is about not measuring up. Not being good enough. Which took me straight to not being worthy! No one could tell this was going on…,not even me to a certain extent. I didn’t walk around depressed. I thought I was doing great. I would stay positive knowing and believing the next great thing for me was just around the corner.
BUT no matter what came around the next corner, it never did the trick. Until the next great thing to happen to me was realizing everything I truly needed to be happy was already in me. I stopped looking outside myself for everything and started to work on the inside. I know this sound like such typical blah, blah, blah, but it’s true, and it works.
It’s funny because the want to have everything “first” and the “got to have it” started to fade. I didn’t even work on that specifically. I started to feel good in my own skin, which led to taking better care of myself. And this leads to feeling better about yourself, which leads to looking at yourself differently. It’s amazing the glow and confidence that comes from not being beholden to things and other people. The old insatiable needs and wants started to subside. Even little things, like the need for my husband to comment on everything in a positive way also subsided. Don’t get me wrong. I still love shopping, acquiring new things, and I LOVE when my husband pays me a compliment! I think those thing are fun and important to the enjoyment of life. I don’t feel that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s that none of those things are responsible for how I’m going to feel about myself. That feels beautiful! I became aware as a consumer. It became about what I wanted, not about what they wanted to sell me!
What is really beautiful about you? What are you seeing every day? Where are you putting your attention? We really need to look where we’re putting our attention– this will show us the road we are traveling. It might change minute to minute or day to day depending how long you stay on that road. Whatever you do, don’t judge where you are. Just be aware of it. Is what your focused on making you feel good about yourself? If so, stay there until it doesn’t. If it makes you feel bad about yourself, don’t stay there. Go in a different direction. The point is YOU get to decide!
We are told all the time what is beautiful. Don’t just go along with it. Create it! Not for anyone else but yourself. See how beautiful you feel then.
So have fun with the magazines and all of the “celebrity”– let it be an exchange of ideas. Conversation starters.This is part of our culture, part of our lives, and that won’t change.
What changes is how we look at ourselves and how we feel about ourselves. Not to be cheesy, but find the beauty in you. Outer beauty is subjective but inner beauty comes from your soul. The truth of who you are… AND no one can touch that!
Now is the time to be good to ourselves!
Sheila
