What is true and what is real isn’t clear anymore. This isn’t reality TV. This is real life and we are confused and frightened. We are living in fear of what happens next in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours. It is terrifying and we cannot help but keep our attention on what the “pussy-grabber-in-chief” is about to do next. We feel power-less because it all seems so out of control.
We feel powerless by design. We now realize that our being frightened and upset is part of an explicit plan. It is a method to exert control over us. For us to be bewildered and confused makes us vulnerable, which means we can easily be manipulated.
The diet industry has depended upon this method of manipulation for years. Confusing messages about our bodies created fear and accomplished the purpose of making us believe that body size and weight are related to our self-worth. What better way to keep women “in their place” than to have us feel like we are not enough. No better way to deny us our power than to have us take up less space or to convince us not to eat.
This messaging has proven so effective that even children are concerned that they are “fat”. Fat shaming is the most predominant form of bullying and it happens to kids and adults alike. I couldn’t help but notice that some of the most critical comments and tweets about the Women’s March were fat shaming and it is the perfect evidence of how to keep women from exerting their own power.
Now that it is socially acceptable to promote thin as “good” and fat as “bad”, it is easy to control how we think and feel about our bodies. The diet, fitness and health industries have all made billions from promoting this message.
If you have ever experienced the frustration of trying to lose weight and keep it off, you know what “crazy-making” feels like. You search for answers to your dilemma, but all you can come up with are “alternative facts”. You want the truth, but it is not easily found.
In our world of post-truth, fake news and alternative facts, the truth is difficult to decipher. Now, more than ever, we must know that the truth is within us. To know the truth, search your heart, not your mind. If you are living in your head and not listening to your heart, you are exhausting yourself trying to find the answers “out there”.
In the same way we were led to believe that our body weight determines our health, we are now being given “alternative facts” to make us question our own reality. We continue to search for the truth.
You should know in your heart there are no moral judgments to be made about your body without your permission. Your weight has nothing to do with your character. Who you are and your value as a human being cannot be determined by a number on a scale. Do not allow someone else to manipulate you by giving you any other “alternative facts”.
Let us then turn our attention to watching where our energy goes and reclaiming it for ourselves. Stepping away from the scale and refusing to let it control how you feel about yourself is a personal act of rebellion.
Be the rebel. Step away from the scale. Take back your power.
