My Weekend

On Sunday I started my day with my favorite combination Church&Brunch, first some food for the soul and then some food for the stomach. :) Pastor John preached a very helpful message in the series called "Take Heart".

I also took a visit to the book store during the weekend to check out some magazines and new books I want to buy. Cameron Diaz was on the cover of many magazines and I love how she wants to encourage women to embrace the age they are at, rather than to strive to be "forever young". Go Cameron!

It was rainy in Toronto this weekend so my husband and I decided to go watch a movie together on Saturday. The movie theater was packed so I guess a lot of people thought the same way. On Sunday we spent a lot of time with our family members which is always fun. It was a good weekend and now I'm rested and ready for a new week again.

The Beauty Ideal

I used to love buying magazines but every year I get more and more annoyed with the negative messages that are sent to women through magazines. I scanned the magazine isle in the store on Sunday and one of the clear messages was: "you need to look young no matter what". Young equals beautiful in today's culture, but only if you are a woman, men are allowed to have wrinkles and still be considered attractive.

 Headlines like "World's Best Anti-aging Secrets" are everywhere.

You can get "younger skin while you sleep"! How awesome, because getting younger looking skin is obviously what will make me happy and make the world a better place.

Thank goodness there are some healthier messages among the headlines, like "Embrace Your Natural Hair Texture". The natural hair movement has forced the media to adapt and include more than only one type of hair in the magazines.

InStyle magazine wants us to be "Forever Young"-looking but thankfully also included a more positive headline: "Love Your Body".

"Love the bod you're with", now that's what I like to read in women's magazines! Can we also please be allowed to "love the age we are at"? Do we have to start the anti-age beauty routine at 20 and then hate the way our body (naturally) changes when we hit 30 or 40? Is this what it means to be a woman?

One of the most beautiful people I have ever met is my grandmother. Today she is in heaven but she is still my role model in life and I loved everything about her. She was so beautiful inside and out and everyone I know thought the same. Do you think she herself thought she was beautiful? No. She used to always tell me she didn't like her wrinkles. I used to tell her in response: "You are 60+, you are supposed to have wrinkles!" We all grow up in a culture that tells us that we aren't enough, that we aren't beautiful the way we are. A culture that wants us to believe that we need to change this and fix that to be beautiful, so we spend our lives feeling less than beautiful although we are absolutely stunning! That makes me really sad.

I see many millennials all over the world choose something different, they are choosing to love and embrace who they are, and that makes me so excited! Let's make 2016 the year we all stop following the negative beauty ideals in the culture and start loving what we've got! :)

The Media Fast

 

I’m reading a new book where one of the challenges the author gives you is to have a 48 hour media fast. The media fast includes taking a 48 hour break from all these things: the internet, TV, magazines, newspapers, radio stations, video games, iPods, mp3 players and stereos. I thought to myself: “This should be quite easy, it’s only for 48 hours.” It turns out it was NOT easy! I tried to take a media break on Friday and Saturday last week and let’s just say I made many “exceptions”.

The number one thing I learned from my failed attempt at a media fast was that I might have a little bit of a problem with “media addiction”. It probably could do me some good to spend a little less time on the internet, watching TV and reading magazines. I sometimes feel like I don’t have enough time for all the things I want to fit into my daily life. Now I have found one of the things that steal a lot of my time.

I love social media, being able to shop online, having Netflix with tons of different TV shows to watch etc. The only problem is there is still only 24 hours in a day. When I spend more time on the internet than I really need, or watch more TV episodes in a row than I need to become relaxed, I end up having less time for other things. It’s unbelievable to me how addictive many forms of media are. Two years ago I decided to try taking a break from alcohol for one full year, I had no problems doing this so apparently alcohol consumption is not a problem of mine. Last Friday I tried taking a 48 hour break from media and I couldn’t even do it for one full day.

My little issue with spending time doing something else than being in front of a screen made me decide to do more work in this area of my life. I decided I would cut down the time I spend on media by 30%. The big question is: “How will I entertain myself if I can’t spend my free time on media? What will I do instead?” Luckily the book I’m reading has a few suggestions: play a board game, take a walk, go for coffee with friends, work out, read a book.

 

 

The point with this media fast is that it will make room in our lives for other influences than what the media pushes on us every day. If we spend all our free time on media we will become formed by it. As we take a break from media our minds will start to change and we will start to let go of false ideals. We stop letting media define how we should view ourselves and define what is important in life. This is an opportunity to free our minds and make space to renew our thoughts about ourselves and the world we live in.

 

I have now started reading books in the evenings instead of relaxing with TV shows or on social media, which is so easy to get stuck on for hours. Yesterday I spent my evening at a coffee shop, reading a new book and enjoying a piece of cheesecake for a couple of hours, and I left my phone at home. My husband and I decided to lit candles at dinnertime a few nights a week so that we can enjoy long conversations after we are done eating instead of watching TV. It has also become very obvious to me that if I spend less time on media I suddenly have no problems at all fitting in work outs. Small changes can go a long way!