By Michele Tenney
Here’s To Your Health
Michele Tenney
I was recently laying on the beach with my eyes closed, taking some needed me time by listening to the waves washing ashore, the songs of the seagulls and feeling a nice gentle breeze blowing, when I heard a man and woman briskly walking past.
The man was coaching the woman and said to her, “If you look good, you’ll feel good and that will set you free.”
I found myself going into deep thought about that comment. I felt bad for the woman because I wondered what her perception of “feeling good” was. Did she feel she needed to be 50 pounds lighter when 20 or 30 pounds would be more appropriate for her overall health?
What do we compare ourselves to in the name of “feeling good?” Feeling good is not just about an outward appearance. It’s about our inner self as well. It has to include our self-esteem, our self-worth, how we value ourselves and being comfortable in our own skin because we know who we are – and whose we are.
Our society has placed far too much value on our outward appearance. We have not placed enough value on inner beauty, which makes the outward appearance radiate.
So many young girls these days battle anorexia and bulimia in the name of what our society has deemed valuable on the cover of magazines and in Hollywood media. In reality, according to an article in Medical News Today, as many as 40 percent of models battle eating disorders.
I would like to see more magazines picture healthy, athletic models such as Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit editions and Athleta to better reflect what a healthy body looks like.
I was a dancer since I was 3 years old. My passion was ballet. I danced with the Connecticut Ballet Company until I was 15 years old. There was a certain body type I aspired to be like. As I grew into a young woman and my body began to change, I was not prepared to embrace the changes my body was going through and began a journey of anorexia and bulimia myself. In hindsight, I wished I had someone to mentor me during those body changes and to teach me to accept myself exactly the way I was. We all have our own DNA.
I have spent much of my life finding my way to wellness: spirit, soul and body. What worked for me in my 20s did not work for me in my 30s, and what worked in my 40s is most definitely not now working in my 50s.
We have to seek and find as well as ask and adapt to new stages of our journey, being mindful of changes that come from certain foods, exercises that no longer work and levels of stress that most definitely need to be lowered.
We should embrace ourselves at every stage of life as aging is wonderful, because the alternative is not. I’m hoping future generation will be able to reverse what society and the media have deemed valuable. Where there is hope, there is a future.
Here’s to your health.