Oxidation and self-love

Oxidation & gravity, the many faces and shapes of self-love



Dealing with oxidation & gravity -aging women behind the scenes

A while ago I was visiting one of my dear friends in Mexico. Sharing life experiences, laughing about our silly human tendencies, comparing and questioning ourselves… We covered the whole range from superficial to deeply nourishing conversations. You know how these spontaneous women-gatherings look like, no?


Anyway, we were talking about aging, cultural differences, and what it means to be a woman in our society. My usual perspective, according to all the effects of oxidation and gravity through time that I have developed through my own examples in my environment and my personal experiences, is that we should love ourselves just the way we naturally are, living a healthy life-style.


My Latina-friend shared that on this side of the globe, it’s not always so easy to look around like me, without make-up, casual wear and slippers instead of high heels. There is still this expectation that a woman should look pretty, dressed-up and sexy all the time, especially if you go public. My friend is the only one of her friend-group without a boob-job, fake ass, new lips or eye-brows! I didn’t even know that having thick eyebrows was a thing!? In Europe, when I was younger, it was exactly the opposite. So confusing.


Here my mind comes in, criticizing machism, how women also have their part in it, and so on.


The most mind-blowing part of our conversation:


“They probably look at me and think: poor girl, she doesn’t care about herself, she doesn’t love herself enough to give herself a surgery. Why walk around like that if you can prevent it?”


While I would preach about self-love and -acceptance, being who and how we are, many of these Latinas have a totally opposite perspective: if you don’t feel good about yourself and can’t accept it, why fight it if there are easy solutions, as an act of self-love. 


Probably as valid as my perspective.


Wow


It really depends on how you look at it. What a mind-shift. Such a different (sub)-culture.


Self-love has so many faces, hasn’t it?


What does yours look like?

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