I've been asking myself, and others, this question a lot lately which caused quite a debate amongst some of my friends.
A few years back a worldwide survey was done on people's happiness, and Tibet came top, and guess which country had the least access to forms of media and therefore social comparison.....yes you've guessed it, Tibet.
I have a confession.
I am a product.
A product of my upbringing, a product of my society, a product of my choices. I applaud all parents for your endeavours to make your children love themselves as they are, but you probably only had that luxury for a couple of years after birth, before they became aware of the outside world and all it's subconscious pressures to conform.
I wish that I had grown up in a life without media (in all it's forms), a place with nice non-judgemental people, people whose only agenda is to make the world a nicer more pleasant place, then I would love how I look, love the life I am leading and enjoy the process of living. But I didn't, and with our 24hr media saturated world, your kids more than likely won't either.
So I've come to this conclusion, if we all really want to be happy with ourselves, how we look and our lots in life, we need to quit the comparison to others. We need to chuck out the TVs, the computers, magazines, books & newspapers and then, taking it to the extreme, bin our cameras and mirrors as well........... oh and then move to Tibet.Maybe next year…….
Toodles
Karen Lee
