Self love- statistics and steps forward

The people of our world have been taught to hate themselves. Our bodies are not good enough, our minds not capable enough and our thoughts not adequate. Now, more than ever, we need to be taught to love ourselves first.

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“I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself”. Rita Mae Brown will be 72 this year. Her wisdom and acceptance is revered for its all-encompassing nature. However, our youth still know so little about how they can learn to be the kind of person that they will love themselves for being. There is a crisis- Eating disorders are the 3rd most common chronic illnesses for young women in Australia, 80% of ten year old girls are afraid of being fat and have dieted to avoid it. 85% of women aged 10-60 opt out of daily activities because they dislike how they look. In Japan, only 8% of women aged 10-60 say that they like the way they look. There is an epidemic of hatred and lack of care for our bodies and our minds, with disastrous effects.

More and more people are reaching a breaking point with their body image, while not enough are speaking up. Select women are standing up and saying it's not good enough. Some companies have stopped photo-shopping their models and show unaltered bodies instead. To learn to love ourselves though, we need to stop looking out and start looking inwards.

To learn to love yourself, you need to learn truly who you are, take responsibility for your emotions and accept that who you are cannot be swayed by other's perceptions of you our bodies are our own, our minds beautiful and our thoughts original. We can learn to live in a world where our whole selves are adequate to ourselves and all others. We can learn to live in a world of balance, and above all, self-love.

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