"I stand in awe of my body."
-Henry David Thoreau
Loving our physical selves, being in awe of ourselves, like Thoreau, needs to be a requirement of life. How can it be okay to go through this one chance at life and not love the totality of who we are?
But many people, mostly women, but also a growing number of men, struggle with not only loving but accepting their own bodies.
It seems to be a growing problem in our world - with ever building numbers of young women and now young men joining the ranks of a population that views itself as not entirely acceptable.
How can this be? Really, when you think about it, in a world so filled with stressors and uncertainty, how could we really be what we are meant to be as a humanity when a vast number of people can't accept such a fundamental part of themselves?
What are the causes of this epidemic? What are the personal and social stressors that contribute to a poor body image? What are the costs to our own self-esteem and mental health? What does this mean for the larger society we are part of?
Follow me as I examine each of these issues. Hopefully this will help you understand what this issue means to everyone in our society. If you struggle with a poor body image then I hope this helps you find some peace within yourself. If you know someone who has problems with his or her own image - I hope this gives you ideas of how to reach out to the people you care about. Consider it as maybe one of the most important things we can do to change the world: learn to love ourselves completely.
Thank you for reading!
Shannon Loewen
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