To be a loving person who is easily loving towards your spouse, kids, family, friends, work buddies, clients and even with your business and job, you have to first love your SELF!
The relationship you have with yourself is the blueprint that sets the tone and characteristics of your relationships with other people.
The secret to creating a successful, loving relationship with another lies in first learning and knowing how to love oneself.
Self-Love attracts good people and even more love into your life and it also quenches the “need” for someone else to “fill up your cup”.
We all know that we are to be considerate, kind, loving, accepting and generous towards other people but are we considerate, kind, loving, accepting and generous towards ourselves?
Do you ever tell yourself how amazing and wonderful YOU are? Do you acknowledge your inner and outer beauty, and your amazing gifts and talents? Do you demonstrate to yourself the qualities you wish to give to – and receive from others? Are you intimate, honest and respecting of yourself? Are you committed and faithful to you?
Your relationship with yourself will be mirrored in your relationships with other people. What we cannot give and receive from ourselves makes us lack an authentic ability to do so with others.
Women and Body Image
Lately, I’ve been on a detox diet, mainly for health reasons yet I’ve been catching myself getting excited about the pounds I’ve been losing in the process. I am by no means overweight and this should not even be a concern for me but given that the modern day unrealistic ’standards of beauty’ also meet my eyes from time to time, it is fascinating to note that as aware as I deem myself to be, I still get affected by the messages which repeatedly seem to say; “Thin is beautiful, and we can never be too thin”.
Not to worry, I am not obsessing about my weight in any way and I’m generally not that interested since I’m focused on being and feeling healthy… but… I am interested in ’self-awareness’ and ’self-acceptance’, and so it becomes fascinating to note how women are portrayed in modern day society, through the many channels of media, and even to note that these ‘ideals’ affect me as well, as much as I deem myself to be completely aware of these ‘illusions’. I truly wonder if anyone in today’s western society is 100% immune to comparing themselves to the ‘ideals of beauty’.
Today’s society recognizes all too well labels such as; anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorders, and body dysmorphic disorder. It is said that about 50% of girls between 11 and 13 see themselves as overweight! And, about 80% of 13 year olds have attempted to lose weight. Now that’s absolutely insane! How women see themselves is completely different from how men perceive their bodies. Only about 10-15% of people with eating disorders are men, the rest is women. For women, our perceptions of our amazing bodies are often all but healthy and realistic, and it seems the ‘ideals of beauty’ are getting more and more skewed with the prevalent use of ‘photo re-touch’ softwares and manipulation of any and all perceived flaws. The truth is that the women we see in the magazines don’t even get to look like the women in the magazines!
Anyways, enough with my ranting… I discovered this great article on Telegraph Online. The author’s perspective is interesting and puts our obsession with ‘youth and beauty’ in a fascinating light. I encourage all women (and men) to read this article. When you’re done reading you may want to take note of other ads and articles on the page, it drives home the overall point. Everything we see is a manipulation of our perceptions of ourself. We, the female version of mankind, spend SO much money just to feel good about ourselves and believe we LOOK GOOD so we’re a prime target for money makers. Yet, when it comes down to it, all we ever need is self-awareness and self-acceptance. That is the foundation of REAL LOVE, REAL beauty and everlasting happiness.
Check Out this Article: Women and Body Image: A Man’s Perspective
Related Post: Whatever Happened to REAL Beauty?
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