I Like Me, Mostly

There are a lot of things we've been conditioned to hate about ourselves. The tide is turning, albeit slowly. More and more social media posts and marketing ads are geared towards embracing our body types, accepting our wrinkles and revering our stretch marks. Status quo is changing, and I'm almost on board.

The thing is, we are still relying on societal expectations to tell us what to like about ourselves. We aren't allowing ourselves the power to choose. I appreciate that so many brands are promoting real faces and real bodies. I love how much awareness is pushing up for real people. I just wish we didn't need billion-dollar industries to verify our badassery. I wish we could decide what we like about ourselves, for ourselves. 

Let's stop waiting on social media or brand names to prove our worth; stop apologizing to our image in the mirror. Can we figure out what we want for ourselves, and do that? Can we decide what we love about ourselves, and embrace that? It's going to take time. It's going to take practice and reminders and a whole culture of strong thinkers backing each other UP! We are going to have to work at this, ladies and gentlemen, and we will need each other's support.

You don't have to like everything about yourself. It's not a rule. The rule is this: you can either like it, learn to like - or at least be ok with - it, change it, or live with your miserable self. Same goes when you're looking at anyone else on this Earth. Like it, get ok* with it (because it's not you - you can't change it), or be miserable about it. 

Part of my "Becoming Forty" journey is figuring out how to be the best version of me I can be - and what that even looks like. I took a selfie for my profile photo this morning since the old one was from almost a year ago and I'm having a good hair day. Actually, I took a dozen selfies and attempted to fix them all with filters, because my face. I studied my face and saw only flaws. After an embarrassing number of minutes on this project, it occurred to me that I was not being real, and fake me is not the best me. In the end, I chose the picture that felt the most "me" - even if it wasn't the prettiest picture. I did use a basic black and white filter, which still shows my chipped front tooth, my extra large gums, the wrinkles around my forehead, mouth and eyes, the divot in my nose, and the blank space in the center of my left eyebrow. I'm a work in progress. We all are. We do what we can. 

*Getting ok with something can mean working through your problems with it, or just releasing it to the universe so you aren't miserable about it. You are part of the solution when you allow others to decide what they like about their own selves, without your judgement.