Who needs a better body (image)?

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Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance

By Rosie Molinary

Someone might have alleged that I have body image issues. So I did what I do -- checked out a half-dozen books about body image from the library.

This one I even own! But I checked it out anyway because my library is still not catalogued, and I couldn't find it. Our library is great now, so cozy since we redecorated. That's another subject. 

So allegedly I have these body image/self-esteem issues which are hard to challenge because maybe I have evidence that I'm a grotesque beast, and you present little evidence to the contrary, other than your "opinion". 

I admit, it wouldn't hurt anyone for me to read about radical self-acceptance and maybe do some journaling exercises. So I did the first exercise in this book:

1. What do you want for yourself and the world in terms of beauty perception and body image? How can you act on that today?

I want to feel beautiful every day and love my body no matter it’s shape. I want everyone to recognize their beauty and the beauty in others. I want media to stop judging us and offering to change us. I want appearance to no longer be a punchline or an excuse for derision. I want an enlightenment about the lack of causation between weight and poor health. On that note, poor health should not be an excuse for derision either. Or blame.

What can I do today? I could post this on my blog. 

I know it's taboo to talk about low self-esteem because it makes other people sad. (I made my first therapist cry.) Unless you are a modern master of the self-denigration that's considered holy in our world -- it's totally acceptable to find fault with yourself if the message is draped by a heavy blanket of good intentions for self improvement.

I'm writing this as my perfect child watches cartoons on the floor. I don't want to teach her any of my fucked up self-loathing concepts. I don't know if that earns me self-improvement cred, and I don't care.

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