Free Yourself of Body Criticism!

I’ve been wondering when did this start with women – this seemingly acceptable criticism of our bodies? We used to be goddesses. What happened?

As I sat last week on a beautiful beach in Kauai looking at the magical turquoise water I was confronted with my own thoughts of criticism. Be quiet I told myself. You’re in Kauai – you’ve been swimming, snorkeling, hiking, playing. So what if you don’t look the way you did when you were 26. You’re 56 and you look great.

My ego had a few other little comments to make and I just told it to be quiet and ran into the ocean to let my body enjoy the sensation of the cool water.

But I wonder, where did all this come from? I don’t know one woman who likes her body, or accepts it as healthy, fit, toned, perfect. Why do we need to criticize ourselves?

The yogi’s tell us – we are not our bodies. We are magnificent, precious, powerful souls. And beautiful women!

Try having an exciting, loving relationship with a man with thoughts of criticism going through your mind about your body. Men love our bodies; they don’t notice our perceived imperfections – until we point them out. And they don’t like it when we criticize ourselves. It makes them uncomfortable and want to withdraw.

And we are all complicit in keeping this potentially harmful practice going. We will share our complaints with our girlfriends and receive consolation and understanding. We are passing it on to the younger generation. We consider it acceptable. It’s not!

What if we were to just stop criticizing ourselves and start loving our bodies? Start focusing on the great things and forgetting about the things we think don’t measure up to some standard of perfection.

Come on, we all know this seeming “perfection” standard gets created by men in the advertising industry using highly skilled photographers, lighting, airbrushing, tons of makeup, and the occasional woman who, for a few years will look like the standard of perfection. But even she will have things the photographers will work around or airbrush out.

But it’s not about the few women who choose to have “perfect” bodies. It’s that we are wasting our time and our valuable energy focusing on the negative, when we could rejoice in the positive.

Goddesses, stand up and fight against this American, male, advertising industry attempt to manipulate us and sell products! We need to love ourselves and be grateful our bodies function. We are not our bodies. We are souls in these precious bodies. We are beautiful women. You are beautiful!

Choose to concentrate on all the great things about your body. When the ego comes in with “his” criticism, tell him to be quiet, or to get lost.

You can choose to feel like a goddess. You can choose to embrace the beauty of your feminine body. You can choose to love yourself. You can choose to strut your stuff. You can choose to feel and be sensual. You can choose!

imagine the possibilities…

© Carol Chanel