Most that know me are aware that there is a solid indicator of my stress level and that is my hair. I have a nasty, bad habit of rubbing my head when I am stressed, and the more stressed out I get, the bigger my hair gets. Suffice it to say, my hair can actually get pretty darn BIG! Today, I was holed up in the Bat Cave a.k.a my office, I assure you not because I am an old bat, but rather because it is kind of like a cave hidden on campus. AMAZINGLY everyone manages to find me in the cave! My door is almost never shut, but for the past couple of weeks I have been buried in there. Even student that normally bop in to visit know there is a lot riding on this report. Our Dean of Student Services opted to pop in and make sure that I was alive today, and immediately upon opening my door, she started to laugh out LOUD. Oh my GOSH she chuckled, your hair is gianormous! I looked up from my computer, sighed, and muttered, "I'm editing."
Tonight I got to thinking about the concept of editing. I wish there was an edit button in life. You know the one that I am talking about. The one that would allow you to delete the words that you said to someone that you care about making them disappear into the blank page as though they never existed. Maybe that button would allow you to erase a page in your life's story, a chapter that wasn't so beautiful, or in some cases the better chunk of the book. Perhaps that delete button would even let us rewrite portions of history where the ending could turn out like a Hallmark movie . . . always happy.
I would love to have editing buttons in my life . . . or maybe on some levels I do?
Unfortunately, there is no edit button in life, no magic eraser that just makes our oopsy daisies go away. Sticks and stones may break bones but words have the power to cut to the inner core of another human being's soul leaving scars like permanent marker on the stark white pages. The editing button only exists when you spend a little bit of time in self-study and reflection, and then hit the edit key before you begin to write or say something that will hurt another . . . choose your words carefully.
Sheila
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Sarah Day 12
I have been hesitating about writing this post tonight because I feel like this blog is supposed to be happy and cheerful. After all, "Finding Christmas Hope" is in the title and tonight I have not found the Christmas hope. So I went back and fourth about this and thought that it's probably safer that I toss my emotions aside and write about something happy, like love or cats. But then I decided, this is a blog. Blogs are for writing whatever you want to write, and if people want to read it they will and if they don't, they won't. So, here it goes.
I'm feeling a little frustrated and emotional right now, which I'm not thrilled about because up until a couple of hours ago, I had a great day! Jesse and I both had the opportunity to sleep in this morning, then we woke up and went to CrossFit, after that we went to lunch and then to see the new Hunger Games movie. It was awesome to have a Monday afternoon date! The town was fairly quiet and there were only five of us in the movie. It was not an ordinary Saturday night date and we really enjoyed ourselves.
Not long after we got home, I decided to take a bath as I am not feeling well right now and I can sense a migraine coming on. Right before I got in the bath tub, I saw something on social media that ruined my mood. Let me just mention that I both love and hate social media. I have thought several times about deleting my accounts for Facebook and Instagram, but this is 2014, and social media is a big thing. So tonight was not the first time that this exact same type of post has made me feel a little crappy about myself. In fact, this has happened numerous times. And although they are not directly written directly at me, they still affect me. So . . . after seeing the post, I proceeded to plop in the tub and try to relax. But that didn't happen. Just the opposite actually. I was annoyed about this same thing, again. Uff, social media.
The post was of a gal who took a picture of herself in the mirror showing off her body. The picture did not bother me in the slightest as pictures like that are often inspirational, it was the caption that bothered me. The caption said something about how being muscular is beautiful and skinny is not. I thought to myself, hmm well that's not very nice and a little offensive. It was just a couple of weeks ago, there was another person who posted a picture with a skinny girl and a muscular girl next to one another. There was a caption that said "There are two types of females in the world." On the thin girls picture it said "cardio" and on the muscular girl it said "squats". Maybe I'm just being oversensitive about these types of pictures and posts all over Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but I just don't think they're a little judgmental.
Throughout my whole life, my mom and dad have always taught me to be the bigger person and to rise above posting things like that. I would never dream of bashing someone else's body type because it is different than mine. We do not have complete control over what kind of body we have and I like to think that everybody is beautiful and every body is beautiful. Tall, short, thin, large, muscular . . . They are all beautiful. Why does one always have to be better than the other?
I was born tall and thin. I can't help it. I was bullied for it when I was in middle school and high school and people were always calling me names. But just because I was tall and thin didn't mean I didn't eat, or that I only did cardio for my workouts. I have always been really active. Gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, softball, track - I did it all. But I couldn't gain weight. I couldn't get muscular or bulk up and I wanted to so badly! And even now, today. People look at me and assume I run, and that's about it. I have always lifted weights in the gym, and I have been in CrossFit now for almost 8 months. Like everyone else, I have had my weeks where I don't go as much as I should, but I think that's okay. I squat, dead lift, push press, row, rope, and hang clean like every other cross-fitter. Maybe my weight isn't that heavy compared to most people and my strength isn't at the same level, but I can only do what I can do. If I'm being totally honest, the last thing I want to do is run! And I would give just about anything to put on muscle like Lauren Fisher or my home girl Ronda Rousey.
I think there are so many great things about social media, and I even think people posting workout pictures and videos are great! There are a lot of people, including myself, who find them very inspirational. If they weren't inspiring, people wouldn't post them. I have friends and family who are wellness coaches and they receive so much positive feedback because they are making a difference. They make a difference because they are being positive! They are sharing their techniques and results, and making people feel good about themselves, without bashing any other person. Did you know that you can go on Instagram and search for hashtags and see images people have posted with those hashtags? Some of them are seriously awful and it breaks my heart knowing all of these people feel so bad about themselves. There are 33,349 people who have hash-tagged, "hatemybody."When I clicked on that hashtag, all of the body images were body! It makes me so sad.
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Sarah Day 12
I have been hesitating about writing this post tonight because I feel like this blog is supposed to be happy and cheerful. After all, "Finding Christmas Hope" is in the title and tonight I have not found the Christmas hope. So I went back and fourth about this and thought that it's probably safer that I toss my emotions aside and write about something happy, like love or cats. But then I decided, this is a blog. Blogs are for writing whatever you want to write, and if people want to read it they will and if they don't, they won't. So, here it goes.
I'm feeling a little frustrated and emotional right now, which I'm not thrilled about because up until a couple of hours ago, I had a great day! Jesse and I both had the opportunity to sleep in this morning, then we woke up and went to CrossFit, after that we went to lunch and then to see the new Hunger Games movie. It was awesome to have a Monday afternoon date! The town was fairly quiet and there were only five of us in the movie. It was not an ordinary Saturday night date and we really enjoyed ourselves.
Not long after we got home, I decided to take a bath as I am not feeling well right now and I can sense a migraine coming on. Right before I got in the bath tub, I saw something on social media that ruined my mood. Let me just mention that I both love and hate social media. I have thought several times about deleting my accounts for Facebook and Instagram, but this is 2014, and social media is a big thing. So tonight was not the first time that this exact same type of post has made me feel a little crappy about myself. In fact, this has happened numerous times. And although they are not directly written directly at me, they still affect me. So . . . after seeing the post, I proceeded to plop in the tub and try to relax. But that didn't happen. Just the opposite actually. I was annoyed about this same thing, again. Uff, social media.
The post was of a gal who took a picture of herself in the mirror showing off her body. The picture did not bother me in the slightest as pictures like that are often inspirational, it was the caption that bothered me. The caption said something about how being muscular is beautiful and skinny is not. I thought to myself, hmm well that's not very nice and a little offensive. It was just a couple of weeks ago, there was another person who posted a picture with a skinny girl and a muscular girl next to one another. There was a caption that said "There are two types of females in the world." On the thin girls picture it said "cardio" and on the muscular girl it said "squats". Maybe I'm just being oversensitive about these types of pictures and posts all over Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but I just don't think they're a little judgmental.
Throughout my whole life, my mom and dad have always taught me to be the bigger person and to rise above posting things like that. I would never dream of bashing someone else's body type because it is different than mine. We do not have complete control over what kind of body we have and I like to think that everybody is beautiful and every body is beautiful. Tall, short, thin, large, muscular . . . They are all beautiful. Why does one always have to be better than the other?
I was born tall and thin. I can't help it. I was bullied for it when I was in middle school and high school and people were always calling me names. But just because I was tall and thin didn't mean I didn't eat, or that I only did cardio for my workouts. I have always been really active. Gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, softball, track - I did it all. But I couldn't gain weight. I couldn't get muscular or bulk up and I wanted to so badly! And even now, today. People look at me and assume I run, and that's about it. I have always lifted weights in the gym, and I have been in CrossFit now for almost 8 months. Like everyone else, I have had my weeks where I don't go as much as I should, but I think that's okay. I squat, dead lift, push press, row, rope, and hang clean like every other cross-fitter. Maybe my weight isn't that heavy compared to most people and my strength isn't at the same level, but I can only do what I can do. If I'm being totally honest, the last thing I want to do is run! And I would give just about anything to put on muscle like Lauren Fisher or my home girl Ronda Rousey.
I think there are so many great things about social media, and I even think people posting workout pictures and videos are great! There are a lot of people, including myself, who find them very inspirational. If they weren't inspiring, people wouldn't post them. I have friends and family who are wellness coaches and they receive so much positive feedback because they are making a difference. They make a difference because they are being positive! They are sharing their techniques and results, and making people feel good about themselves, without bashing any other person. Did you know that you can go on Instagram and search for hashtags and see images people have posted with those hashtags? Some of them are seriously awful and it breaks my heart knowing all of these people feel so bad about themselves. There are 33,349 people who have hash-tagged, "hatemybody."When I clicked on that hashtag, all of the body images were body! It makes me so sad.
My hope is that one day people will understand that comparing one body to another is not going to have a positive impact on anyone in any way. There is no good or bad, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly, when it comes to our image. We should be proud of who we are and proud to embrace what we have. There last thing we need in this world is people criticizing and judging others for the one thing in the world that is their own; their body.
Sarah
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