Challenge YOUR body image.

[insanity]

Y'all let me know if I am posting too much stuff, k? I am totally obsessed at the moment with yoga and body image stuff...so am finding goodness EVERYWHERE! LOL! 

http://ybicoalition.com/living-authentically-meet-saeeda-hafiz/

It's your thing... :-D

[Companion]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrp0zJZu0a4

[Thrillho]

Society's ideals have never been my ideals.

 

... does that make me a sociopath? Because that kinda makes me giggle.

[Bekah]

One of our own dear nerds, and someone I admire quite a bit, posted a blog about this video a few hours ago, it's well worth reading (IMO) 

https://realtadesomnium.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/catching-up-starting-with-controversy/

 

Society's ideals have never been my ideals.

 

... does that make me a sociopath? Because that kinda makes me giggle.

Nope, but it makes you interesting. Sorry to burst your "I wanna be a sociopath" bubble  

[Thrillho]

BUT MO-O-O-O-OM, I WANNA BE A SOCIOPAAAAAAATH!

[Frost of the Gloaming]

for Thrillho

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV9evbrrUcU

[Frost of the Gloaming]

what the fluffing fluff man!!!

 

anyway that link is supposed to be the Misfits - Mommy, Can I go out and kill tonight

[StillWaters]

What a lot of people don't understand is that the opposite of love and acceptance is not hate, but indifference. A person who truly has no love for their own body doesn't hate it, but rather doesn't care what happens to it. They wouldn't care about their vitals like blood pressure and cholesterol, or that stronger muscles and greater flexibility will help protect form injury. They wouldn't care that losing (or gaining) weight would help improve their quality of life and enable them to do things they couldn't do before. Think about it. If people really didn't love their body, ads for the beauty industry would have absolutely no effect. The messages of these advertisements work so well, because people for the most part DO love their bodies and therefore want their bodies to be the best they can possibly be. Hatred is nothing more than a twisted form of love. The problem with these advertisements is that they turn people's love for their body into hatred that then fuels profits by trying to mold the idea of "best" into something that is unattainable by the majority and is ever changing.

 

"Is it possible to love and accept my body while wanting to shed some pounds?"

 

I believe by definition, its definitely possible.

[Hit]

 

 

What a lot of people don't understand is that the opposite of love and acceptance is not hate, but indifference

 

I agree with this so much. I tend to think of love and hate as the same feeling, just looked at positively or negatively. They're the most intense and firmly-held emotions, and it's so easy to flip from one to the other based on a single experience. Whereas its a lot harder to stop caring about something you feel passionately about, or to start giving a shit about something for which you are apathetic. 

[Lalie Fanyarendil]

Society's ideals have never been my ideals.

 

... does that make me a sociopath? Because that kinda makes me giggle.

 

I think it makes you a Corellian. How do you feel about being told the odds?

[Quarkle]

What a lot of people don't understand is that the opposite of love and acceptance is not hate, but indifference. A person who truly has no love for their own body doesn't hate it, but rather doesn't care what happens to it. They wouldn't care about their vitals like blood pressure and cholesterol, or that stronger muscles and greater flexibility will help protect form injury. They wouldn't care that losing (or gaining) weight would help improve their quality of life and enable them to do things they couldn't do before. Think about it. If people really didn't love their body, ads for the beauty industry would have absolutely no effect. The messages of these advertisements work so well, because people for the most part DO love their bodies and therefore want their bodies to be the best they can possibly be. Hatred is nothing more than a twisted form of love. The problem with these advertisements is that they turn people's love for their body into hatred that then fuels profits by trying to mold the idea of "best" into something that is unattainable by the majority and is ever changing.

 

"Is it possible to love and accept my body while wanting to shed some pounds?"

 

I believe by definition, its definitely possible.

 

This.

I don't think I've ever read something this well put before. Cheers

[Thrillho]

I think it makes you a Corellian. How do you feel about being told the odds?

Never tell me the odds...

 

...

 

... but you can tell me the Odds are touring again.  I'd LOVE to be told that.

[hblyne]

 

Good question. I think she's pretty. Soft, yes, and also attractive. I could see her feeling good about herself. Myself? Not so much. I'm always somewhat skeptical when my husband tells me that he's attracted to me. In love with me? Yes. Hot for me? Not so much. But if that's what I look like, or close to it, maybe I'm wrong.

 

 

Read what you wrote... If she feels good about herself, then so could you I have so much trouble believing anyone could ever be attracted to me. That was one of the many, many problems in my marriage! My ex would tell me he found me sexy and I just never believed him. Now I'm single and currently very much attracted to a rather sexy guy, but simply don't believe he could possibly be as attracted to me, he's way out of my league etc etc. 

[tmac]

hblyne, I think there's a lot of truth to that. It certainly plays in a role in our relationship dynamic. Not to give TMI, but while our sex life is pretty darn good once we're there, it would be great if I wasn't so resistant to spontaneity.

 

I'm finding that the more fit I become -- not even with weight loss, but getting stronger and seeing what my body can do -- the more confident I become. I hope to keep up with that progress, and eventually find myself comfortable in my own skin. That would be a first.

[IslandGirl_Becks]

I have so much trouble believing anyone could ever be attracted to me. That was one of the many, many problems in my marriage! My ex would tell me he found me sexy and I just never believed him. Now I'm single and currently very much attracted to a rather sexy guy, but simply don't believe he could possibly be as attracted to me, he's way out of my league etc etc. 

 

I'm finding that the more fit I become -- not even with weight loss, but getting stronger and seeing what my body can do -- the more confident I become. I hope to keep up with that progress, and eventually find myself comfortable in my own skin. That would be a first.

 

Believing that you are worthy of love is a prerequisite for loving yourself and allowing other people to love you/accepting their love. Regardless of where your body is vs where you want it to be, it is amazing. The day I finally realized that, I could dance around the house naked and celebrate being myself. Turns out it made an external relationship so much more balanced on a fundamental level (we believed each other when we said something simple like "you're beautiful") when that relationship happened. 

[Lalie Fanyarendil]

Never tell me the odds...

 

...

 

... but you can tell me the Odds are touring again.  I'd LOVE to be told that.

 

The Odds are touring again.

 

Also, I did no fact-checking before making that statement.

[Bekah]

posted in the wrong thread, but....since this post has to stay....

 

 

YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!!!!!

[Lalie Fanyarendil]

Believing that you are worthy of love is a prerequisite for loving yourself and allowing other people to love you/accepting their love.

 

I wonder if my lack of love for myself is the reason that I'm 100% convinced that there's no soulmate out there for me, or if my commitment to being single keeps me from loving myself. (And by "commitment to being single" I mean "have adjusted my life expectations and am too lazy/selfish to adjust them over again".) I'm pretty sure both aspects feed each other, but I'm not sure which came first...probably the lack of ability to love myself, which is related to more than just physical appearance. I keep turning all this over in my head and poking at it as I read through this thread, and I keep getting stuck at the same point--the "I like me, but why the hell would anyone else?" point. Input from others isn't helpful because I don't believe compliments. Now that I think about it, the way I perceive compliments is also messed up. If I actually believe that someone thinks XYZ Nice Thing about me, it's like there's a mental footnote that reads "But you shouldn't, you poor deluded person, it's obviously not true."

 

Aaand, back to the adventures of Darth Controlfreak versus the Bathrobe Brigade. *face in book*

[kaelvan]

Am I the only one that cringes the word "soulmate"?

 

I don't believe there's anyone destined for anyone. Doesn't mean you won't find someone you love and they love you back. Just nothing is destined in this world, not even winning the lottery.

 

Ok I shall be going back to my game of Legend of Zelda.

[hblyne]

All my life I have wanted someone to love me. It's gotten me into shitty relationships more than once and kept me in a rotten marriage for way too long. I keep listening to All of Me by John Legend and pining for that kind of love. I want someone to feel that way about me, preferably a hot musician who will write a song about it! But I have to get out of that head space. I have to learn to love myself, rather than looking for an external source of validation. It's probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but do it I will.

[LadyGrey]

Am I the only one that cringes the word "soulmate"?

 

I don't believe there's anyone destined for anyone. Doesn't mean you won't find someone you love and they love you back. Just nothing is destined in this world, not even winning the lottery.

I used to. Now I don't cringe at all only because my husband and I throw around the word so much. Do I believe in it? Not really. I believe people can be extremely compatible, but not destined for each other. But I am married to a man that is "almost" perfect for me...the shit we have in common is uncanny and we grew up over 2000 miles away from each other. But we have differences too (let's face it, I have a much better sense of cleanliness than he does. ) But we like to tell each other we are soulmates, it makes us feel like a whole. It's an idea that we both would choose to believe. But only for ourselves LOL.  Before, the idea of soulmates to me was just a crappy romantic idea. I was in a terrible marriage for 10 years with a man who was the worst person I could eve be around. It just so happens, I met my now husband online. By pure coincidence. I got lucky, just like the lottery.

[Bekah]

All my life I have wanted someone to love me. It's gotten me into shitty relationships more than once and kept me in a rotten marriage for way too long. I keep listening to All of Me by John Legend and pining for that kind of love. I want someone to feel that way about me, preferably a hot musician who will write a song about it! But I have to get out of that head space. I have to learn to love myself, rather than looking for an external source of validation. It's probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but do it I will.

Yup You can do it I want the same thing...and loving myself is definitely making it less of an issue though I suck so bad at relationships that I think for me, even if someone did love me, it wont last long to begin with bc I am seriously bad at emotional reciprocity, and so even if I FEEL love for them, I don't express it well (for some people) so I guess it's either gonna be a really special person who can love me in spite of my quirks, or I am going to be alone, either way I have to be okay with me bc I cant get rid of myself  

[Castiel]

I might have some dissonance between how I view my body and how it appears to others.

 

For most of my life, I've been really, really skinny (started high school 6'3", 140, graduated 6'4" 160), and so I've ranged somewhere from this if I'm feeling bad about myself:

 

to this, if I'm feeling good.:

 

 

 

I put on a little weight at the end of college when I got into lifting, and looked more normal -ish. As in, occasionally I would see people skinnier than me, and think, "Oh, I don't look like that any more."

 

Then, more recently, I've gotten into lifting again. I've gained 20lbs (6'6", 210 atm), and am the strongest I've ever been in my life. People recently have started telling me that I am looking muscular and such, and one of my coworkers (who has made it very clear he's attracted to me), tells me I have the body that he is working for. But when I look in the mirror, I see myself just as skinny as ever, but now sans abs, and with a little gut from trying to gain weight. I don't really know what I look like anymore. 

 

Edit: I realized this was pointless without any pictures of me. So, it became selfie time.

 

 

Le me: 

 

 

Le me flexing and posing like a dumbass:

[shesavedtheworldalot]

hblyne, I think there's a lot of truth to that. It certainly plays in a role in our relationship dynamic. Not to give TMI, but while our sex life is pretty darn good once we're there, it would be great if I wasn't so resistant to spontaneity.

 

 

 

I hear this so much.  Like, I'm still so resistant to the fact that anyone would want to see me naked that I'm like, nah....let's just not, k?  Which is crazy, because that does not compute logically.  As in, if someone is coming onto you, clearly they find themselves attracted to you.  We need to start a stop avoiding sexy times club.  We could make t-shirts, but that would rather defeat the purpose, no?

[insanity]

I hear this so much.  Like, I'm still so resistant to the fact that anyone would want to see me naked that I'm like, nah....let's just not, k?  Which is crazy, because that does not compute logically.  As in, if someone is coming onto you, clearly they find themselves attracted to you.  We need to start a stop avoiding sexy times club.  We could make t-shirts, but that would rather defeat the purpose, no?

*Runs off to make a t-shirt*