Everyone has their flaws, nobody is perfect. It’s fine to want to work on your flaws or make improvements. But doing so shouldn’t preclude your appreciating your body for what it is, right now. Don’t wait until you’ve lost the five, ten, or fifty pounds you’ve been working on taking off; don’t wait until you’ve run a 5k or a marathon; don’t wait until you’ve completed your New Year’s Resolutions; don’t even wait until tomorrow. Promise yourself now that you will work toward loving yourself unconditionally, and accepting the things you don’t like, and even the things you hate about yourself. No matter who you are, what you struggle with, and how you feel about your body, you are worthy of your love and the love of others. Your self-worth should not be based on anything other than the fact that you are a wonderful person.
It is in this spirit of acceptance that I’d like to introduce Embrace:Me, a project designed to encourage body confidence and treating yourself with a healthy, accepting attitude. I feel strongly that by adopting a more positive attitude toward our own bodies, we can combat the effects of the pressure we feel from external sources, and from ourselves. To show your support for Embrace:Me, I would love to hear your stories–stories of accomplishments, of body confidence, of anything that makes you feel good about yourself. Maybe even a story about why you don’t have to justify your reasons for embracing the person you are to anyone else. If you would like to share your story, please contact me via email at icametorun [at] gmail [dot] com, on Facebook, or on Twitter. Let’s use this positivity to counter the frustration we all feel as a result of the things that make our relationships with our bodies difficult.
Read past Embrace:Me posts:
- Embrace: Discomfort
- Embrace: Self-esteem Ambassador
- Embrace: Lauren
- Embrace: Yourself
- Embrace: A Night Off
- Embrace: Thais
- Embrace: …
- Embrace: Lauren
- Embrace:Me 30-day Challenge
- Embrace: Fat Rant
- Embrace: Katie
- Embrace: Elizabeth
- Embrace: Seeing Beauty
- Embrace: Zoe
- Embrace: Jill
- Embrace: Savanna
- Embrace: Emily
- Embrace Me
3 comments
27 pings
suewho says:
February 26, 2011 at 6:25 pm (UTC -5)
This is a great post! I love it so much that I am going to share it on my wall! These are words that everyone, regardless of gender, should take to heart and live by!
suewho says:
February 26, 2011 at 7:00 pm (UTC -5)
Earlier today, I saw an ad in a food magazine for Skinny Cow dessert products. Basically, it was a letter from “Tiffany” thanking Skinny Cow for their nice desserts and was signed “my butts and thighs.” Now I have to ask, why is this so gender specific? What do you think about this. I think it’s nice that there are low-fat dessert alternatives out there for people, but do marketing analysts really think that they are only targeting women? That kind of rubs me the wrong way. What are your thoughts.
emlit81 says:
February 26, 2011 at 8:54 pm (UTC -5)
I think the Skinny Cow brand is definitely marketed to women. Isn’t the cow in their logo completely feminized? I think it’s rare that marketing on weight loss products isn’t almost automatically directed at women. Of course, that’s not all true (there are certainly weight loss products targeted at men) but it seems like it is taken as a given in the world of marketing and advertising that women are unhappy with their bodies and trying to lose weight. It’s offensive, but when you listen to women talking about their bodies, you often hear them being very disparaging. It makes me wonder if we have been conditioned to talk this way (I think there is definitely an element of this) or if the marketing is accurate. Or if it’s a combination of both, which is entirely possible.
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February 13, 2011 at 9:01 pm (UTC -5)
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March 5, 2011 at 1:50 pm (UTC -5)
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October 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm (UTC -5)
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October 10, 2011 at 9:31 am (UTC -5)
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July 21, 2012 at 3:26 pm (UTC -5)
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