YOU'VE GOT EVERY RIGHT TO A BEAUTIFUL LIFE!

Today on Katie Couric's new talk show, the topic was eating disorders and the special guest was Demi Lovato who talked about her own struggles with this. She also had two other guests, one was an older woman who began to develop an eating disorder in her 50s, and another was a young teenage girl who began to develop an eating disorder after growing up in a household (like most of ours) in which her mom would talk negatively about her own body. As the girl pointed out, when she would say this stuff about herself, it was like she was saying it about me as well, because I am her. I had this same issue in my own household as well. I look exactly like my mom, who is incredibly beautiful and very exotic looking. My mom's side is the ethnic side of my family, and hearing the way she would talk about her looks and her body definitely had a huge impact on the way I saw myself. Then in our case I was getting these same messages from the outside world that since I wasn't all white there really wasn't any possibility that I could ever be beautiful and it definitely affects you a lot as a little girl. I'm really glad this young woman on her show pointed this out, because I don't think any woman is trying to hurt her daughter. I don't think mothers realize how much of an impact what they say about themselves has on how their daughters view themselves. Hopefully, women will see this and become more conscious about how we talk about ourselves in front of this next generation of girls, because they're listening.

I think it was also really interesting to hear from the woman who developed an eating disorder at an older age, and how they said this is a growing problem amongst older women in our society. I personally had never heard of that until today, but it does make sense because there is so much pressure on women to be young, and older women are thrown away in our society. Under the matriarchy older women were the most valued people in the whole entire society, because they had the most knowledge and the most life experience. The good news is that the new guardians of the Earth fall into that category of being wise very very powerful elders and all of them are female! Because women are the ones saving this planet :) I think that will help all women a lot with how we see ourselves, and change who in our society is valued. If you would like to see clips from the show you can check out the link below:

http://www.katiecouric.com/on-the-show/2012/09/24/demi-lovato/

So I want every woman who reads this post to take some time to honor yourself today and how amazing you are. One way I honor myself is by drawing a beautiful bath and adding rose petals that I get from the roses in my backyard (make sure to ask permission from Mother Earth before you take anything from her). Another way to honor yourself is by honoring other women. Maybe tomorrow you can give a few women you encounter some compliments about how cute they look, or how much you appreciate having them in your life. Which totally reminds me of something I did in high school. On Valentine's Day I decided to give all my girl friends a rose, and I ran all over the parking lot finding their cars, while they were in class. I left a flower on each of their windshield's with a little note on it. It was a really nice surprise. I think I also gave one to my boyfriend. This might be something that women don't know about men, but you ladies would be so surprised by how much guys love getting flowers or even little presents. They also love compliments, because it's not like guys go around doing things like this for each other, so it's rare that that happens to them. I doubt they would ever admit it though, but you can tell, because they get super excited about it. So if there is some guy you like and are trying to get his attention that might be something to try. Anyways...

Or another thought is that you can also leave a flower with a little note on it like "You are beautiful" in random locations, like a park bench, for someone to find. I think there is so much negativity directed at women and girls, that little things like this go such a long way. Because we might not be able to control the way the male population treats us, but we can definitely honor and value each other and remind each other, that despite what we hear all day long, we are remarkable. And who knows maybe one day you'll be having a really bad day, and you'll go sit on a park bench only to see a rose sitting there with an uplifting message on it for you :)