Day 34 - You Are Not Your Appearance
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nana6799
Posts: 262
Good Morning Everyone!!
Well, we do have snow and more snow now and it is cold enough that it could snow more and what we have won't melt!!! so, you can guess what my husband is doing right now!! That's right, snow removal at our business clients places!
I really liked the reply yesterday from jbnl1991:"Counting your blessings is an exercise in gratitude." So true. I believe this to be important to do on a daily basis.
"You Are Not Your Appearance, but Does the Rest of the World Know That?"
"The tragedy of our time is that we are so eye centered, so apprearance besotted." Jessamyn West
"All of us can pull ourselves together some of the time. Some of us can pull ourselves together all of the time. But none of us wants to be "pulled together" every single moment of our lives. Let's consider those days when you just don't give a damn or are too exhausted to remember to pick up a brush. Can we find inspiration in dirty jeans, an unwashed face, stringy hair? Can there be incarnational revelations when the skirt is too tight and the panyhose pulls at your hips?"
"I hope so. For I know those days and those days know me."
"Probably you were taught, as I was, that how we present ourselves to the world is very important. Unfortunately, our outside packaging counts for far more than it really should. Often, when we don't live up to the world's expectations of how we should look or behave, we fall victim to a vicious circle of self-loathing and denial that can be difficult to escape from unscathed. At times like these, it's a comfort to remember that our souls are more dazzling than cellophane. "Beauty is an internal light, a spiritual radiance that all women have but most women hide, unconsciously, denying its existence." What we do not claim remains invisible. " Marianne Williamson observes in "A Woman's Worth."
"But as you become more intimate with your authentic self----as you recover your true, incandescent identity---there will come a gradual but undeniable physical transformation. It is absolutely impossible to commit to your spiritual growth, awaken to your own radiant Light and not have it reveal itself on the ourtside. "It is God's will that we be beautiful, that we love and be loved and prosper in all good things," Marianne Willisamson reminds us. "It is God's will that we all become the goddesses we were created to be." Sarah Ban Breathnach
"What we do not claim remains invisible" Wow! That caught my attention!
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." Edmund Hillary
Well, we do have snow and more snow now and it is cold enough that it could snow more and what we have won't melt!!! so, you can guess what my husband is doing right now!! That's right, snow removal at our business clients places!
I really liked the reply yesterday from jbnl1991:"Counting your blessings is an exercise in gratitude." So true. I believe this to be important to do on a daily basis.
"You Are Not Your Appearance, but Does the Rest of the World Know That?"
"The tragedy of our time is that we are so eye centered, so apprearance besotted." Jessamyn West
"All of us can pull ourselves together some of the time. Some of us can pull ourselves together all of the time. But none of us wants to be "pulled together" every single moment of our lives. Let's consider those days when you just don't give a damn or are too exhausted to remember to pick up a brush. Can we find inspiration in dirty jeans, an unwashed face, stringy hair? Can there be incarnational revelations when the skirt is too tight and the panyhose pulls at your hips?"
"I hope so. For I know those days and those days know me."
"Probably you were taught, as I was, that how we present ourselves to the world is very important. Unfortunately, our outside packaging counts for far more than it really should. Often, when we don't live up to the world's expectations of how we should look or behave, we fall victim to a vicious circle of self-loathing and denial that can be difficult to escape from unscathed. At times like these, it's a comfort to remember that our souls are more dazzling than cellophane. "Beauty is an internal light, a spiritual radiance that all women have but most women hide, unconsciously, denying its existence." What we do not claim remains invisible. " Marianne Williamson observes in "A Woman's Worth."
"But as you become more intimate with your authentic self----as you recover your true, incandescent identity---there will come a gradual but undeniable physical transformation. It is absolutely impossible to commit to your spiritual growth, awaken to your own radiant Light and not have it reveal itself on the ourtside. "It is God's will that we be beautiful, that we love and be loved and prosper in all good things," Marianne Willisamson reminds us. "It is God's will that we all become the goddesses we were created to be." Sarah Ban Breathnach
"What we do not claim remains invisible" Wow! That caught my attention!
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." Edmund Hillary
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This really resonates with me. I was raised in a family that put so much focus on outside appearances (and still does) that sometimes I feel like the fattest, ugliest person in the world. When you have a mother that only complements you when you're wearing makeup and when you don't asks "what happened?" or tells you "Now that's how you're supposed to look" when you're dressed to the nines and when you aren't just kind of gives you the "skinny girl disapproving once over" it makes life hard everyday.
I literally dress up to go see my mother so I don't have to hear her mouth. And on the day I don't feel like it it's an hour long conversation on why I look the way I do if I haven't come up with some illness that can explain the reason for a natural face and normal clean, comfortable clothes.
This is definitely a lesson I need to learn.0 -
Jojo211: Thank you for your reply. I am so sorry that you have been ridiculed so much for not looking like a Miss America 24/7. If we could afford a daily make-up artist and a hairdresser then yes, we all would be more than happy to be looking most beautiful 24/7.
I do think Sarah Ban Breathnach's perspective on the matter is good though. The reason I say this is I have watched my daughter go from no make-up, hair washed but nothing more than a comb through it, baggy clothes to a person now that does her hair and even in different styles, wears clothes that shows her nice figure, tans, gets her nails and pedicures done. She did not do this though until she got rid of some emotional baggage in her life and then she just seemed to blossom after that. And I am not saying that could be the case of any of us but it does give us a nudge to take inventory.
Let the beauty inside come out!!!!0 -
Due to my nightshifts, my replies might be coming in with the new posts, but I keep reading them.
For me this quote was really catching my eye: "our souls are more dazzling than cellophane"
I really liked that. after running for 20 Minutes straight (big NSV for me) yesterday,I was looking sweaty near from falling off the treadmill and nowhere near as someone who could even go to a supermarket. In fact after the workout 2 days ago and the running, my muscles ached all over and when I arrived and nightshift, all I wanted was a quite night with no one to bugger me.
But every time I was getting up and my sore muscles ached, I had a big grin on my face, my soul was still shing bright from the victory of my workout, I was pretty sure everyone could see!
I can imagine how it feels to be beliterated by your own mum all the time. My mother never did one proper diet in her life, always crash and one sided ones. Sure some of them made her getting rid of her pounds really fast, but she always gained them back! Whenever I tell her I told... say 1 lbs a week, she came up with some crazy plan, because it was not enough for one week and so I can loose more and faster.
Needless to say, that none of it ever worked and after a couple of days trying to make my mum happy I usually ditch the whole program. Since I am on MFP I have not spoken or seen my mother for several reasons (it is not co related just mentioning it) and I know what I do here is the right way, the changes I have made are not that huge, but they make me accountable in a visualization.
If I see her now, I think I am stronger and more likely to tell her to keep her advice to herself!
@Jojo: Standing up to your own mother and tell her that she hurts you by saying what she does, is one of the hardest things in life. But it is not making you a bad person to confront her and tell her, that you are her daughter and therefore should be loved for who you are and not the way you dress up!0
