For those of you who signed the promise on the End Fat Talk website, you probably also got a Daily Challenge via email yesterday. I was super excited to see that I had already done part of it in my last post, by noting three things I LURVED about my body. For those of you who didn’t get the email, the challenge was:
Stand in front of a mirror alone wearing as revealing an outfit as you can without being overly uncomfortable. Write down only positive attributes about yourself, including emotional/personality (e.g. I like my sense of humor, I like that I care about others) AND physical (e.g. I like my legs, I like my hips). Write down everything that you like and make it as long as possible.
Last night after I got home from the gym (woot!) I thought about my list some more after I showered. It’s a really empowering exercise that I recommend everybody should do!
There are a number of great initiatives and programs that we can be part of in small ways everyday to help end fat talk and encourage other women to recognize their own beauty. I wanted to share a couple of my favorites with you!
As I noted last week, I first heard about Fat Talk Free Week from Caitlin at Healthy Tipping Point. She is also the creator of Operaiton Beautiful - a grassroots campaign to spread the love of our own individual beauty. From the Operation Beautiful website:
The mission of Operation Beautiful is to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find. The point is that WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL. You are enough… just the way you are!
Caitlin is even working on a book about Operation Beautiful now! I haven’t personally posted a note yet, but think about it all the time. Time to turn thinking into action! Also be sure to check out Caitlin’s Fat Talk page for more ideas and inspiration!
I credit much of my self-esteem to the activities I was part of growing up. Girl Scouts was an especially motivating and inspiring program for me. Through Girl Scouts, I was able to discover a lot about who I am and what I am capable of. Notions that were completely unrelated to my body or appearance. A tremendous amount of self-worth and value for our individuality was a key part of the program. It is vital to encourage girls at a young age to love themselves and to treat themselves with respect in order to eliminate Fat Talk and thoughts at a young age. Another program I’ve heard of recently is the Dove Self Esteem Fund. From the website:
The Dove Self Esteem Fund was created in 2006 to educate and inspire girls to a wider definition of beauty and help them with a stronger sense of self esteem.
The Dove Self-Esteem Fund is committed to helping girls build positive self-esteem and a healthy body image, with a goal of reaching 5 million girls globally by 2010.
The Dove Self-Esteem Fund site also offers five great ideas to help build self-esteem on their website and a thriving Facebook community that you should definitely check out.
Do you remember the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty from a few years ago? The campaign aimed to draw attention to the natural physical variation between women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves. The campaign featured these women, all beautiful in their own skin.
I personally loved this campaign. I think Dove’s campaigns are super examples of good corporate citizenship and provide a service to women, while also of course serving the public relations and good marketing campaigns of the company.
There are so many opportunities for us to help other women to love themselves and believe in themselves. I am so lucky in this life to have been surrounded by women who reinforced positive self-image and individuality in me. I hope that I can be that person for someone else. And I hope you will be too!
You are important! You are beautiful! You are YOU!
