Thoughtful Ponderings...
Today in my human development class we were discussing eating disorders and my professor was trying to convey the point that we individually need to stop calling ourselves fat and saying negative things about ourselves because they aren't true. To illustrate this point he told a story. He said that he was in a Romanian orphanage once and he was handing out teddy bears to children in this orphanage. As he passed one crib the baby inside was laying face down so he was going to just leave the teddy bear and not disturb the child. But as he placed the teddy bear in the crib the child lifted it's head and he said that he jumped back at the sight. He said that the baby had no upper lip or nose and there was just a hole where they should have been. Because of this hole he said that mucous covered her face. He said there was also a problem with her eyes. The colored part of one eye was as large as a nickel and the colored part of the other eye was smaller than a dime. He said that because of this the caregivers would rarely spend any time with this child and she was mostly left to herself. No one wanted to adopt her because she was so deformed. For her, her appearance was a death sentence. He explained that in later visits he never saw that child again and he believes that she died because of lack of love. It has been proven that of children who receive no or little stimulation 1/3 of them die before the age of 2. As he told this story I couldn't help but cry. My heart hurt so badly for this poor child who was so emotionally starved. As I walked home after class I began to think more about this child. I began to wonder about who she would have been if she had received proper attention and care. What other struggles would someone like her encounter? And then I began to think about the importance of receiving a body. If her sweet little spirit could have chosen whether or not to be born into that body, would she have chosen it? If she had known exactly what her life would be like would she have taken the opportunity so that she could receive a body? I think she would have. The importance of receiving a body is so vital that I think she would have chosen to receive that body, even with the difficulties she would face.
Getting back to the original story my professor encouraged us all to realize that even with the flaws in our bodies we are still wonderfully blessed to have the bodies that we have and that we need to be more careful about the way that we think of them and the way that we express that we think about them. As I pondered this more I realized that I am way too hard on myself physically. No, I am not at my goal weight, but I am running regularly and trying hard to get myself physically healthy. That is what matters, it doesn't matter how much I weigh. I am recovering from having a baby for goodness sake! I have made a new goal to not say negative things about myself. I have a wonderful body that my Heavenly Father has given me and I am going to be happy with it! I am still going to try to eat better and excersize regularly because that is what is healthy to do in order to take care of my body. I want to teach my children the importance of appreciating their bodies and taking care of them for health's sake and not because you care too much about what you look like.
Anyways, thanks for letting me air out my thoughts. I have been trying to take more time to ponder. I had a great conversation with my sister about pondering and I am going to try to spend more time pondering. Well, I better go take care of Jaxon. I hope everyone has a great day!
2 comments:
I am glad that you pondered on your blog. This subject has been on my mind a lot lately and you gave me new insight. In our ward many women have had work done on their bodies to enhance themselves. Bryon and I were discussing if we really wanted to stay in a ward where plastic surgery was the norm. I don't want Hannah to ever feel that her body is inadequate and that she should change it to be more accepting of the world's standards. It is hard when people around you are talking about what work they are going to have done on their bodies not to think of what is wrong with yours. I think that it is important to be healthy and teach our children to be healthy. I have learned that the image we have of ourselves is projected in our children.
I read a good article the other day that talked about this. It said that 60% of women are "disordered eaters" and another 10% or so have eating disorders. By disordered eaters the article meant that the women are extreme calorie counters or just have an unhealthy view of eating in general. The message I took away from this is the importance of point of view. We need to be telling ourselves, "I'm going to work out and eat healthy because I deserve to have my body functioning at it's peak" instead of "I'm depriving myself of junk food and forcing myself to exercise because I hate my body and want to change it." Congrats on keeping up the running though! My knee started hurting after school started so I haven't been able to run all month.
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