Art, Empowering Discussions

why not?

LIFE CAN BE WAY TOO SERIOUS! Sometimes I just need to be free and stretch my legs.

Why not walk down the street and let your imagination run free. Up doorsteps, fire escapes, trees and walls. My imagination knows how to bring a bright goofy smile to my face as I walk down the street.

Imagine bright oddly shaped flowers blooming out of mailboxes, vines climbing up the wall with silly little creatures that swing to and fro.

Imagine painting a mural on a blank wall. Maybe you add glitter or feathers or paint the pieces of trash you found in the gutter and glue those to the wall.

Imagine those rain puddles as bright colored pudding where the kids jump and splash, licking the splattered pudding off their faces and laughing all the while.

Imagine fairies and elves poking their heads out from behind trees as you pass and showing off their own bright goofy smile.

Imagine that the most mundane tasks are accomplished while dancing. Is the mail person wearing a tutu and tossing letters and packages perfectly into the boxes and arms of those that are waiting. Is the delivery person walking on his hands and carrying boxes inside stacked on his feet? Are those people in their office cubicles taking breaks and singing out the window?

Imagine a world where for a few minutes you are just happy. You are not thinking about deadlines and dinner times and play dates and plans.

Just imagine.

Empowering Discussions

LYBD is BACK!

LYBD, Love Your Body Day is celebrating 14 years! NOW, the National Organization for Women hosts LYBD each year to support women in loving their bodies and not feeling bad because they are not skinny enough or tall enough, or because they don’t have perfectly perky breasts or perfect skin.

So it’s that time of year to climb up the mountain (or your roof) and holler at the tops of your lungs “I LOVE MY BODY THE WAY IT IS!” If you are not interested in yelling from a roof or feel like you would attract trouble, than how about saying it while you stand naked in front of a mirror?

Why shouldn’t you love your body anyway? What’s not to love? You use it everyday, so that’s one very important reason to love your body right there.

Your body is unique and helps differentiate you from pod people. See, yet another reason to love your body!

Another reason? You only get one body, so you best start loving it before it’s gone.

You can decorate your body however you want, with tattoos, piercings, hair color and a good old dash of Vitamin D that brings a flush of color!

Oh my, so many reasons to love our bodies. I bet you can think of a reason to love your body.

Do you love your sparkling eyes, your loving smile, your feet, your nose, your knees, your strong legs, your soft arms, the shape of your face? WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT YOUR BODY?

Answer that question with one part of your wonderful body and then keep adding until you love every single tiny cell that makes your body as beautiful on the outside as your strong loving soul on the inside!

Today is the day to start loving your body for the rest of your life. This is YOUR year to love love love your body. The next time you see a advertisement of an airbrushed woman or celebrity on TV, remind yourself that you LOVE YOUR BODY the best.

I spent years hating how much taller I was than all my friends. I hated my uneven eyes, my huge feet, my chubby stomach, my frizzy uncontrollable hair, my gigantic nose, my crooked teeth, my thunder thighs, my scars. Basically I spent hours each day feeling sorry for myself and hating myself in the ultimate pity party.
Change didn’t happen over night. Eventually I got used to being tall because I went out more and met other tall people. I started enjoying life by hiking, playing tennis, riding my bike and anything fun outside. I love to move, which keeps in good shape and while my stomach is still flabby and not even close to a six pack I stopped caring. I feel healthy. I eat better. My thighs may indeed be thunderous, but I don’t really care. I have other realist issues in life to deal with like losing my best friend and figuring out how to make an income off of my art. I am no longer spending hours in front of the mirror crying about how ugly I am or wishing that I was as pretty as an actress or model. Most days I don’t even wear makeup. I prefer to enjoy my day instead of fussing over how my make up looks.

Loving my body has made me happier, it has given me loads more time to do other stuff and I am constantly stopping people from berating their own looks. We are all beautiful, we don’t all need to look the same. We can be chunky, we can be skinny with no curves, we can even naturally have a “popular” body, it doesn’t matter. It’s what we do with our bodies that will create a life worth living.

Don’t sit around with friends and diss your bodies in a spirit of being equally unattractive. When you start to complain about your body stop yourself. Compliment yourself and your friends instead, even if you only whisper. If you want to change something about your body, please do your research first. Cosmetic surgery is dangerous. Putting implants in your body can cause health problems and death. Extreme unhealthy dieting will just make you sick and it probably won’t last. You and only YOU are in control of your body.

LOVE YOUR BODY TODAY AND EVERYDAY!

“This post is part of the 2011 Love Your Body Day Blog Carnival”
🙂