Last night I attended a media preview of the film I Feel Pretty that will release April 20. I joined a large group of women for a happy hour then we went to see the movie. My friend Emily went with me and I thought it would just be a fun night with a chick flick. After the movie, my friend and I had the most heart wrenching conversation about the issues of self confidence and body positivity. This is a conversation that needs to be had so I'm going to add my little bit to it today.
In I Feel Pretty, the main character Rene is played by Amy Schumer. (I'm going to try not to spoil anything.) Rene struggles with self confidence in the beginning of the movie. Then she has an accident at Soul Cycle, bumps her head, and wakes up seeing herself as beautiful. While the film has its' flaws, my take away was the theme that nothing needs to change about you other than your perspective and attitude.
This is HUGE for me. I didn't lose weight or all the sudden become beautiful one day. I changed my perspective through what I call "Exposure Therapy." I posted a photo of myself a day everyday for Dressember (which is such an important campaign.) By the end of the month, I started to be ok with the way I looked in photos. This then translated to being ok with the way I look in real life.
Another important point is that I have a daughter and like it or not, I'm her role model. In the movie, Rene says talks about how being a little girl, we have ALL this confidence and then over time with people's comments or perceptions, that fades away. I find this thought TERRIFYING. I have the most spectacular, smart, funny, and beautiful daughter in the world. She has ALL of the confidence. You CAN'T TELL HER NOTHING. And I fear the day that some person makes a comment about her body or her outfit that crashes through her shield of confidence and hits her heart.
Because of this, I've cut the negative self talk out from myself (at least out loud.) If I'm trying on outfits, I try to say "I don't feel like wearing this dress today" instead of "this makes me look fat." I will say "My skin is bothering me this week" and not "I have horrible skin, I hate it." This shift shows my daughter that these things are temporary and don't rule my life. But they used to. I used to stand in front of the mirror and detest my fat rolls, my acne marked skin, my unruly eyebrows, my widow's peak, my everything.
The thing is, I still have a lot things I used to hate about myself. Probably more so now. But I decided that my body and more importantly my soul couldn't thrive if all I did was sit there all day and tell myself how much I HATED my flaws. I switched to trying to be kind to myself. I switched to giving myself grace. I switched to saying "my hair is rocking" and "this dress looks awesome on me." And it literally changed my life.
What I loved about I Feel Pretty is that Rene did not "body swap" or lose weight or have a makeover, she shifted her perspective and her whole life changed. And I just wanted to echo that message to you. CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE. When I finally decided that I was WORTH something, the world decided I was worth something too. I'm not saying it was easy. I'm just saying you can do it and you are SO incredibly worth fighting for yourself.
Huge thank you to STX Entertainment and Katie from the Wake Up Call for inviting me to this event! Please go see this movie and have the conversation about how confidence can change your life.
Connect with me on social media:
In I Feel Pretty, the main character Rene is played by Amy Schumer. (I'm going to try not to spoil anything.) Rene struggles with self confidence in the beginning of the movie. Then she has an accident at Soul Cycle, bumps her head, and wakes up seeing herself as beautiful. While the film has its' flaws, my take away was the theme that nothing needs to change about you other than your perspective and attitude.
This is HUGE for me. I didn't lose weight or all the sudden become beautiful one day. I changed my perspective through what I call "Exposure Therapy." I posted a photo of myself a day everyday for Dressember (which is such an important campaign.) By the end of the month, I started to be ok with the way I looked in photos. This then translated to being ok with the way I look in real life.
Another important point is that I have a daughter and like it or not, I'm her role model. In the movie, Rene says talks about how being a little girl, we have ALL this confidence and then over time with people's comments or perceptions, that fades away. I find this thought TERRIFYING. I have the most spectacular, smart, funny, and beautiful daughter in the world. She has ALL of the confidence. You CAN'T TELL HER NOTHING. And I fear the day that some person makes a comment about her body or her outfit that crashes through her shield of confidence and hits her heart.
Because of this, I've cut the negative self talk out from myself (at least out loud.) If I'm trying on outfits, I try to say "I don't feel like wearing this dress today" instead of "this makes me look fat." I will say "My skin is bothering me this week" and not "I have horrible skin, I hate it." This shift shows my daughter that these things are temporary and don't rule my life. But they used to. I used to stand in front of the mirror and detest my fat rolls, my acne marked skin, my unruly eyebrows, my widow's peak, my everything.
The thing is, I still have a lot things I used to hate about myself. Probably more so now. But I decided that my body and more importantly my soul couldn't thrive if all I did was sit there all day and tell myself how much I HATED my flaws. I switched to trying to be kind to myself. I switched to giving myself grace. I switched to saying "my hair is rocking" and "this dress looks awesome on me." And it literally changed my life.
What I loved about I Feel Pretty is that Rene did not "body swap" or lose weight or have a makeover, she shifted her perspective and her whole life changed. And I just wanted to echo that message to you. CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE. When I finally decided that I was WORTH something, the world decided I was worth something too. I'm not saying it was easy. I'm just saying you can do it and you are SO incredibly worth fighting for yourself.
Huge thank you to STX Entertainment and Katie from the Wake Up Call for inviting me to this event! Please go see this movie and have the conversation about how confidence can change your life.
Connect with me on social media:
No comments:
Post a Comment