"I AM ENOUGH"
How often do we look in the mirror and say with heartfelt truth... "I am enough". Me... just the way I am. Who I am and how I look is good. I am enough.
However, according to my television, my radio, magazines I buy, and my participation in social media... I will never be enough or have enough. I will never make enough money or have nice enough clothes, or a big enough house. And most of all, I will never be thin enough or pretty enough. I suck.
How many of us feel that our own body is a disappointment - This amazing, complex anatomy that allows me to live and breathe and work and play and enjoy life? Instead of being grateful for my health or the aspects of my body I approve of, I think things like "I'm too fat, too skinny, my stomach sticks out, my hips are too wide, my nose is too big, my eyes too close together, my hair is too thin, too curly, too straight, too thick"...
Media has brainwashed us into never being satisfied. With anything.
This needs to change.
So here is the big question... why do I let total strangers influence my thinking and my way of being when my own family and friends love me the way I am? Why is media a bigger influence on me than people I actually know?
And why do I allow them to decide whether or not I'm the right size and shape or if I have the right hairstyle?
It is good to be enough. It keeps the universe in balance. In a world where "bigger is better, looking out for #1, and unless I am rich and famous, I am worth nothing" prevails, it is tough to just be enough. We live in a world of extremes and it is completely off kilter.
The result... dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, depression, anxiety, jealousy, competitiveness... do any of those things sound good?
Being enough means accepting my limitations and embracing my strengths and goodness. Our culture has fed us a lie - telling us we can do and be anything we want if we simply make the effort. This is untrue. And all of us at some point or another will discover this untruth when we begin to bump into our failures.
There are some things I simply cannot do, no matter how hard I work at it. I just don't have what it takes. And that's okay.
Limitations are a good thing. They keep us humble and grateful. And they allow other people besides me to excel and have their moment of glory. I am not proposing that we become apathetic and lazy. I am merely suggesting that perhaps it's good to have limitations, for the sake of ourselves and certainly for the sake of others.
Our strengths lie in the acknowledgement of our true self. The self that dares to risk and fail, the self that has the courage to stand up for what is true and right, the self that refuses to succumb to society's picture of beauty, success, and happiness.
At the end of the day... it is our own self that we have to live with so it's time we began to love and accept ourselves as we are. Only then is it safe to get to work on becoming the best self we can possibly be.
I AM ENOUGH. And that is good.
Article by Deb Judas - Creating Space
