Redefining Beauty Standards
throughout all our life
we’re taught that beauty comes from
within that looks don’t matter
that what’s on the inside is more
important than what’s on the outside
yet we live in a world that seems to
contradict this idea
every day society has set
such an unrealistic beauty standard a
highly artificial one
where it promotes one figure to be
beautiful and the other to be the
complete opposite
and now there are devastating effects
self-love means that you accept yourself
fully
that you treat yourself with love and
with respect
that you take action to nurture your own
growth and your own well-being
that you’re kind and compassionate to
yourself even through those difficult
times for most of us
self-love can feel like something that’s
a luxury rather than an actual necessity
but in all honesty it’s something that
we all need to develop
and for one reason or another we all may
like it
it may be the desire to achieve
perfectionism which in itself already
entails a lot of self-criticism
um i for one have struggled with this
concept or idea of living myself
i don’t know if it’s formed by my
environment by my intolerance of any
actions or habits
but i do know that one contributing
factor is how i look
ever since we are young everything we
are exposed to
all comes together to contribute to this
artificial beauty standard
even though our world may be improving
in today’s century
the size zero barbies i used to play
with as a child
the social media that i go on every day
now
it all comes together to have this
effect which we don’t realize in the
moment
our world right now is at such a culture
of social media
where at any moment in time we’re able
to go
and look at all these beautiful images
of models and celebrities
it’s inevitable that this ultimately
sets us up for comparison
and slowly this comparison starts to
take control over our life
it starts impacting our personality our
actions
our mindsets and we’ll try to cover up
these insecurities
in the ways that we know how you’ll
start wearing makeup
first it’s just a little bit of
concealer to cover up those acne scars
but then it becomes more and more
until it starts to feel like this mask
that you have to hide behind
it comes to a point that when you do
take off that mask at the end of the day
it isn’t comforting to see your true
self your natural beauty
you hate that your acne scars reappear
that your nose is too big for your face
when you begin to hate the way that you
look you yourself
impact your own mental health for me
the biggest thing that i’ve struggled
with is my acne
it feels like i’ve tried every skin care
product every skin care combination even
undergone treatments
but it just won’t bunch
and sometimes i won’t really realize it
but other times when one comment here
and there
we’re seeing only clear skin on social
media will leave me upset
with low self-esteem and with hatred for
the way that i look
but i’m guilty of something too when it
comes to a point that i’m so insecure in
my own skin
i’ll start to find faults in others
judging them by their looks
by their weight and that is a very
very ugly thing to do i’ll validate this
by thinking that
oh they’ve made comments towards me too
but
they may have meant it as a joke but it
still hurts
but honestly it just becomes this
vicious cycle
of negative talk everyone is guilty of
judgment
the important thing is to become
self-aware and to try and improve
becoming self-aware means you need to
recognize that this negativity
is a result of comparison you need to
shine light on the insecurities that you
have
to start truly accepting yourself for
who you are
reaching this state of self-awareness
leads you to that state of self-love
where you’re automatically more likely
to do things that nurture your own
growth and well-being
things such as eating healthier
exercising choosing to hold on to the
healthier relationships
and when you have this self-love living
an
active lifestyle is for the purpose of
making yourself feel stronger
and making yourself feel healthier not
for achieving a certain weight
or trying to look like the models on the
covers of magazines
my journey of self-love has been a
difficult one
a difficult one to start and definitely
a challenging one to continue
and i know that i still have a long way
to go
as a world we need to try and improve
and prove
that these sayings aren’t just sayings
that they’re true and as a society we
reflect them
that looks don’t matter and beauty comes
from within thank you