(Note: This article is a part of our 31-day series, “31 Days to a Whole Body Makeover“.)
I have this tightly-held belief that every woman is by her own divine nature already beautiful. It’s so easy to forget, though. How could we not? As we grow up, we are barraged with messages that we are never good enough, that we don’t measure up to the impossible standard set upon us by society.
As babies, no, even before birth, we are fascinated with our bodies and all of the things we are learning to do every day as we grow. We come into the world loving and adoring our own bodies, amazed with its capabilities and the drive to learn to do more. We are all too anxious to learn to roll over, to sit up, walk, and speak. Somehow, though, as the years go on, we start to listen to the messages passed down from the women in our families about the insecurities they feel about their bodies. We hear our mothers, grandmothers, and aunts express displeasure in their bodies. If they don’t say it directly to us, then we overhear them say it to themselves or to someone else and then we, their daughters, internalize it….