What I learned from Cinderella

"Standards of beauty are arbitrary. Body shame exists only to the extent that our physiques don't match our own beliefs about how we should look." ~ Martha Beck.
Now the question is what do we believe we should look like? And where do those beliefs come from? I think these beliefs begin very early. At least for me they began early on. We hear comments like "what a beautiful little girl, she has such gorgeous eyes"...and if we are pretty than we must be nice people, we will always succeed. Just look at Cinderella, she was suffering under the tyrannical reign of her hideous step mother and ugly step sisters. Stuck as their personal slave. Thus, ugly=mean and pretty=kind. In spite of her cruel step family Cinderella remains sweet and kind. Then she is freed from this oppression by a prince and not just any prince, a handsome prince. Now that she is rescued she lives happily ever after. This sets the precedence for us that good things come to beautiful people. You don't have to do anything except wait for rescue. I think this truly is the belief of a large part of society. Look at all the beautiful celebrities, they are practically worshiped for their appearance. Gratefully, now we get to decide what beauty is for ourselves. Luckily, as we mature so does our understanding of real beauty. What does real beauty look like to you?

That explains it!

This you tube video made so much sense to me and falls in line with what my Psychiatrist has been talking to me about. Thought I would share the wealth. :)The Science of Appetite

Liberated from fear!

That is what all of you have you have done for me. I feel liberated from the fear of what others might think of my actual feelings. It feels honest and I thank you all for receiving it so kindly. I'm reminded of a quote from Marianne Williams "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear as that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God! Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It's not just in some of us it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others."