We’ve all heard the saying “You are what you eat”, yeah? I’d like you think about everything you consume on a daily basis, how it’s shaping who you are, as well as how you think and feel about yourself: What websites do you visit? What magazines do you read? What are you watching? What is showing up on your social media feed?
Take a moment to pause and really reflect on this. Because we live in a capitalistic, consumer-based society, most of what we see, read and hear is telling us we don’t have enough, we don’t look the right way, we’re not successful enough, what we’re doing isn’t good enough – that we are not enough. And the promise of being and having enough is just one (more) purchase away! Companies make billions of dollars on making us feel like crap.
For example, two weeks ago I found myself in front of the mirror, questioning my eyebrows. MY EYEBROWS, PEOPLE! Thanks to a beauty industry that is running out of things to make us feel bad about, I am now thinking about what’s “wrong” with my eyebrows.
I used to take a break during the day to go online to People Magazine and get caught up on celebrity gossip…who is dating who, who just dumped who, what someone wore, what schwanky event they went to, where they went on vacation and what coffee shop they just came out of. And I had the realization that I have never met these people, nor will I ever, so why am I investing my one wild and precious life on keeping up with what they’re doing and feeling bad about my normal life that doesn’t contain designer clothes, red carpets or renting entire islands for a vacation?
When clothing catalogs come in the mail or a sale notice pops up in my inbox, I see all the latest fashions I don’t have and really “need”. Never mind my closet is already full of clothes, many of which I never get around to wearing. When home decor catalogs come, my lovely home seems scruffy in comparison.
We are consuming massive amounts of information every day, and a lot of it is “junk food”, filling us up and making us sick.
As part of our new confidence and empowerment programs, we’re talking about the importance of consciously consuming things that are in alignment with our values, not those of a consumeristic society. That afford us the opportunity to feed our curiosity, learn new things, expand our world view and inspire us to have conversations about goals and ideas, not other people or things. That help us get to know ourselves more, not celebrities we’ll never meet. That build a sense of competence, strength and courage, not self-doubt or self-loathing.
We hope you’ll join us on the journey. Be a part of the conversation on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter or bring us in to speak at your next event!
