Your Obituary

In 20 or 50 or 80 years when people are looking back on your life, what do you want them to remember about you? Do you want them to talk about how focused you were on the way you looked? What about how concerned you were about eating that extra cookie or skipping a day of exercise?

Far too often, we get caught up in the superficialities of life. I'm just gonna do a quick reality check with everybody and say that none of that matters. The way you look doesn't matter. Your height, your weight, your skin color, none of that matters. When we really take a minute to step back and realize that our bodies are just our bodies, we can take away all the negativity of what we hear and see in society today.

Why is it that even messages about "body positivity" are still so focused on the body? Why aren't we learning to praise intellect, character, personality, strength? Bodies are beautiful and strong and they are our paintbrushes in the canvas of life, but that's just it. That's all they are.

The media has become such a toxic place. I think the world would be shocked to know how many cases there are of body dysmorphia, eating disorders or disordered eating, and absolute depression over what we look like on the outside. WE CREATED THAT. We have created a world that places so much of our worth on what we look like on the outside and not nearly enough on what we have to offer from the inside. God created our bodies so that we could experience mortality and develop spiritual gifts and talents and gain knowledge, not so we could obsess over the number on the scale. That is such an exhausting way to live.

Life is way too short to worry about all that. It's time we start living with a mentality of body neutrality. My body is just a body and it does not define me. My body is just a body and it allows me to live and breathe and learn. My body is just a body and it is the only one I've got so I might as well accept it.

Kami