The pressure for our youth to match a male or female fashion model isn’t reality and it isn’t truth. Yet the internet and immediate gratification of “likes” if we perpetuate the myth is constant.
So how can we fix this? It is an N=1 experiment, I say. The cure is individual, and even sometimes we cannot even identify the disease of living up to someone else’s standards.
I modeled for years, from age 4-35. After years of eating lots of apples and popcorn, and running, even in the South African summers, I hung up my modeling hat. I got pregnant with my first child and wanted to stop thinking about being “camera ready.”
And so I made an effort to shift the focus on healthy babies and healthy mama. When I did that, it felt uncomfortable at first. I followed a craving, for the first time in years. I ate meat (chicken) after 19 years of being vegetarian and pescatarian.
Fast forward to now, age 52+. I’m larger than I was then, my boobs and butt are larger, I have lots more energy, and I practice inner work through Bikram yoga and meditation. I have some wrinkles, aches and pains, but I’m so much more comfortable with myself. Perhaps it is age. Perhaps it is life’s experiences. I’m writing books, teaching workshops on wellness, and wellness coaching. And in the evenings, I serve food and drinks at a restaurant.
To be human, to be connected, to use our senses with wild abandon, these are what beauty means to me. As I struggle with some middle aged issues like hypothyroidism and the accompanying symptoms like middle aged spread, I am reminded of the opposite things going on in my life, like overall good health, two fabulous kids who still like me (teenagers), and a husband who has been my anchor for 29 years.
Yeah, beauty is something I think we all grow into. It’s all good.
Thanks for allowing me to share my journey.
Sincerely,
KJ Landis
-Author and Creator of the Superior Self series
Visit me at www.superiorselfwithkjlandis.com
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