Thursday, January 1, 2009

Start Of BL 2009

So, I cannot believe the year has flown by so darn fast! I have had this blog for a year... It really seems like just yesterday that we decided to get together to lose weight and become healthier women together. I have sucked at times with my posts, but through this last year I want to let you all know that your support, and your sharing of your lives has been so wonderful. Going to some of your blogs on days left me crying as my heart hurt with each of you as you struggled, other days when I felt like I couldn't get any lower you left me crying again, with laughter! And here we are again, a new year facing each of us. I am so thankful that we will be able to do it again together. I have formed great friendships, strengthened others and found a passion once again that I thought was lost forever, myself.
I have been struggling of late on body issues, so this has come at the perfect time for me. I need your support in seeing myself through true eyes that are not clouded with self doubt. I am so firm in my belief that we need to instill the gift of self love to our kids, especially our daughters. I am so grateful for Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty, they have an incredible site with teaching tools, discussion boards and videos. Today as I was getting online and an ad popped up for this campaign, my older kids were hanging on me like they often do and I saw a teaching moment. I explained to my kids that the world is filled with images that are beautiful, but a lot of those images are distorted and computer generated. I told my oldest daughter Chantelle (9) that she has to be careful not to compare herself, or try to be like these women. I told my oldest son Tyler (11) that he has to never compare real women to these ads, that he needs to always respect a woman for who she is and never based on how she looks compared to any ad. He said "mom, I already know that. Those women are all fakey, all it is is make-up, wigs and dumb stuff like that" Yay, if he can only keep that view and not be bombarded with all that "fakey" beauty that's so seductive, that we as grown women who know its not real still crave it and put these expectations on ourselves. I showed them the video of the women who is ordinary and beautiful, and what they do to her to make her look "perfect". Chantelle wondered what was wrong with her to begin with, and why they would need to cover up her freckles and shave parts of her at the end, like her neck and why they changed her eyes. Yeah, why?! They had another video, and this is the one I wanted to share, it's self explanatory and it goes along with a bumper sticker I saw the other day when I was having serious put down thoughts. It read "Don't Believe Everything You Think", and I am sure it meant something completely different, but it smacked me in the face and made me realize that yeah, I cant believe everything I think about myself. OK, here's the link: www.campaignforrealbeauty.com you may need to copy and paste, but take the time to watch it, its only 1 minute long. It's the dove film called "Amy", and take a moment to start a conversation with your daughters, no matter how old they are. Be so careful with how you talk about yourselves, lets try to raise our daughters, and sons, in a world where they don't have to kill themselves to be beautiful. Lets teach our sons to respect women for true, real beauty not the distorted beauty facing them every way they turn, and how to truly know the difference...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I'm so with you on those dove adds and teaching our kids that the "beauty" we see every day in adds is not real! I understand low self-worth as I struggled with it from the age of 7! How sad is that?! There is no way in HELL I want Alissa thinking anything that I thought about myself! I am so careful to not say things in front of her! Oh, I think you have the link wrong, it didn't work for me. But went to dove and found this link: http://dove.msn.com/#/features/videos/default.aspx[cp-documentid=7049560]/

I'm glad you were able to join us and are joining us again this year Holly! There is no way you should ever feel bad about your body, as you have an awesome body and are a beautiful person!

Victoria said...

Hi Holly,

I love the Dove films too. I have never struggled with body image so much. I am not always as thin as I would like, but I love that my body was able to grow seven babies and feed them for a whole year after they were born. My body is 44 years old, and it still does all the things I want it to do. I am starting to get wrinkles, and I still get acne...that is a little unfair, I have to say...:)

I think I have always realized that our attractiveness to others has so much more to do with what is inside, than what is outside. When I read your blog, I find you to be an attractive person and a kindred spirit, even though I have never seen you. The trick is passing that idea down to my daughter, right?

Just go be beautiful in 2009, Holly! I am sure you already are...

Tammy said...

Holly, I couldn't agree more!!! Society has fed us crap!! We do need to teach our sons and daughters what true beauty is. And YOU to me are beautiful inside and out, so knock off the self hate talk! Easier said than done, I know....But, just know you are beautiful!! :) Love ya!

Della Hill said...

You said it sister!
You should never doubt yourself, physically or otherwise.
Love ya,
-Della

Kristi said...

Nice post!!! Great insight too.

I'm glad to have joined your group. Looks like you had a lot of fun and success last year. I'm hoping I'm that successful this year also.

Cute blog, by the way.

Christi said...

I so agree with all of it. I have to really be careful about what I say in front of the kids, especially my girls...

Hollys Hobbies said...

Thanks guys!! I love all of you too! My goal this time is to just learn to love myself...

rochelle said...

Holly, what wonderful insight you were able to share with your kids, and thanks for sharing it with us as well! I am looking forward to getting to know you. Good luck!

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