The first full week of 2016 is behind us. My gym has been busier than usual all week long, and I’ll bet you’ve spent the past week hearing various people offer tips for how to be your best self: how to achieve your best body, organize your house for maximum productivity, or get more out of life in general.
Well, here’s my very simple message for all of us today:
We’re Good Enough, Just As We Are.
This week’s Five for Friday is devoted to links that will help us remember that simple, but sometimes difficult to remember, idea.
1. No doubt you’ve heard that Oprah is the latest spokesperson for Weight Watchers. This article does a great job of explaining the problems with encouraging women to “let 2016 be the year of our best bodies.” Um, no thanks. This is 2016. Are we really still operating on the assumption that women’s imperfect bodies deserve so much of our attention? (And by the way–I mean no disrespect to Weight Watchers. Their program helped me lose 20 pounds after the births of each of my children. It’s effective, safe, and easy to follow.)
2. “Every day of your life, when you wake up, you’re given the chance to start over.” That bit of wisdom comes from New Year, Same Me, in which Ashlyn Matthews explains why it’s ridiculous to believe that we need to make big changes just because we’ve started a new calendar year.
3. “I Worried,” a poem by the marvelous Mary Oliver, has become my go-to source of inspiration this week. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I stumbled across it last week.
4. “You are the sum of the experiences you’ve had so far, the sum of all the heartbreaks and comebacks, illusions, dreams and moments of sheer happiness.” This is the opening line of Andrea Mihăescu’s beautiful piece You Are Just Fine, in which the author reminds us that “Your only goal in life is to become who you are, nothing more and nothing less.”
5. And finally, here’s a helpful list of 7 Things To Remember When You Think You’re Not Good Enough. This statement really resonates with me: “You can’t hate your way into loving yourself.” It’s hard to remain impervious to all the negative messages around us–especially at this time of year–but let’s give it a try. Let’s give ourselves credit for our small acts of kindness, intelligence, fortitude, strength of purpose, and for all the good qualities we bring to the party every day. I’m willing to bet that will be a whole lot more fun than wallowing in the pit of self-loathing advertisers have been digging for us this week.
Have a peaceful weekend!
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