That feels like revolutionary talk in a world that’s designed to keep you at just the right amount of unhappy to be a good little consumer.
Some days it definitely feels like people are becoming more aware of this, but it’s super hard to stay focused on what matters when daily life keeps us busy and distracted.
We look to social media as soon as we have a spare moment to think, scrolling through the curated experiences of our wider circle and dodging adverts tailored to invasive algorithms that follow us around the digital sphere to exactly what we’re most likely to spend money on.
Happy people don’t need things.
Happy people aren’t good little consumers!
A women’s worth has traditionally been measured by their body. Too fat, too skinny, breasts too big or too small, can have children or cannot conceive, attractive enough to date in public or just **** in private.
Judging people based on arbitrary beauty standards that are manufactured based on the goods and services that people want to sell lots of. Diet pills. Breast augmentation. Hair dies. Botox and fillers, Nails. Clothing styles and fast fashion. A person happy in their body doesn’t need any of these things, but as long as the population is distracted and busy, what would they stop to think about it?
The phrase at the top of this short post is a powerful reminder and it’s one that I have to remind myself of on a regular basis.
Your body is the least interesting thing about you.
But it is something that can be a source of joy, if you remind yourself that your body is a vessel for you to enjoy life.
Your amazing ears that hear a Tui getting down with it’s bad self, or music that touches parts of your soul and gives you goosebumps.
The way warm sand feels between your toes, or the way cool water laps against your ankles when you wade through shallow water.
The way it feels to run, to dance.
The way a cold beer feels on a hot summer day, or the smell and taste of your morning coffee. The sound of a champagne cork to celebrate a special occaision.
Your hands making sandcastles or preparing food, or licking melted ice cream off your fingers.
There are so many ways that our bodies help us interact with our earthly experience, yet everything about contemporary life is designed outside looking in, rather than through the lens of expeirence.
When we’re fully present in our bodies they become a vehicle for joy and experience, rather than something to be changed or controlled to fit a beauty standard or fashion thats going to change soon anyway.
- What was the last thing that made you smile?
- The last thing you saw or heard that made you laugh?
- What was the most memorable meal you had recently and what made it special?
- What is your favourite outift and how does it make you feel when you wear it?
- Which of your friends has the craziest laugh and how does it make you feel when you hear it?
- What was the last thing you created?
- What parts of your personality and way of looking at the world are you proud of?
- What was the last thing you said that made others laugh?
Joy never goes out of style. They happiest people are the ones more connected with the simple pleasures in life, not the manufactured joy of the instagram influencer.
I’ve been ruminating and occaisionally blogging/ ranting about this for years and I’m defintiely seeing a shift…
At least I think it’s a shift, it might very well be my organic algorythm serving up what I want to see and hear based on what I choose to engage with.. and after all, isn’t that possibly the one thing we can control?