Unpacking 2012 full#

Treat yourself as good as you did when you didn't have them. Even if it is not a crippling disease that has changed you, it may be stress, love, travel, shift-work, an injury, medications.aka LIFE that has given you these scars. For everyone out there who carries a little extra weight, please stop beating yourself up. I am proud of the battle that I am fighting. I have earned every pound my tired struggling painful body carries. I will love myself at my current size 16. I will not beat myself up for not being a size six anymore. It is the side of me which is more compassionate and empathetic. It is the part of me that makes me stop and smell the roses. Now I will choose to look at my extra weight as the scars of my disease. I felt defeated for about three whole days. Where was she? Shame feels like defeat if you let it. Where had my old self gone? My young, thin, energetic type A self, who was going to change the world. I was ashamed of the fat tired lady who looked at the camera. My main scar is the sixty extra pounds I carry.īefore my new take on this, I saw a picture of me on a recent field trip out to a pumpkin patch, and felt shame.

I have a fused wrist, trigger fingers, and fused toes. Well, that got me thinking about my scars. The scars were hers to show what she has survived. She looked at her scars from her double-mastectomy and reconstructive surgeries as her badges of honour. I was watching a show about a woman who survived breast cancer. We are all powerful to act out of love and negate the fear of being shamed. Instead of rendering someone powerless with shame, we need to begin making people feel powerful with love. If we choose to lift our youth with support, kindness, compassion and understanding we can in turn raise our society. It is a sad perpetuating truth that can be softened with support and love. Children that have been torn apart with shame tend to try and tear others apart. We should be guiding our children by building their self esteem rather than tearing them down.īullies are created with shame. The ones that are so close to our children are the ones who can reset this guffaw. Unfortunately they can be teachers, ministers and priests, leaders, coaches and parents. There will always, sadly, be people who get off by bringing others down. I wonder why anxiety disorders are so prevalent. Because this shame bubbles over and seeps into our everyday culture: our jokes, teaching methods, disciplinary actions and entertainment all appear to be driven by shame. I would love to see more of these shows, rather than the reality-type take-down shows based on shame. 'Good ol' programs like the Waltons, Little House on the Prairie and Touched by an Angel all show supportive, empathetic fellow human beings helping one another.

Unpacking 2012 full#

Our entertainment is chock-a-block full of ways to tear us down whether it is through talent contests with judges exposing compulsions and or addictions or showcasing celebrities' perceived fashion blunders. We think it is OK to take people down a few notches in order for us to feel good about ourselves, and placate ourselves thinking well, they do get help at the end. Somehow we've allowed our values to shift in the light of entertainment, and vulgar wow factors. Is this the only way to get 'help' in our society?

'Excuses!' the toned trainers yell at the dissolving struggling fellow human beings. Why? Ratings?Īnother show follows people struggling with weight issues, and shows these fellow human beings in a Grotesque light. She then tears them apart, dissecting each move they have made, shaming them into action. There is a television show where the hostess publicly humiliates couples struggling with debt by divulging their financial woes for the masses to see. Why? Why do we want to bring someone down with shame? Why do we want to embarrass our fellow women through shame? We allow ourselves to be ashamed of our actions, or in-actions. And yet, it is used to sell, teach, preach and manipulate us.