Body-shaming

Fat-shaming

Food-shaming

Kid-shaming

Shame-Shaming

We are living in a culture of all kinds of shame.  If there is something out there, I bet there is some form of shame attached to it.  I don’t want to start your Monday off on a downer, but I feel like this is something I want to address.

Social media is a great and terrible thing.

I love being able to share my life and thoughts with you through my blog, Instagram, and Facebook.  It’s an amazing way to be able to connect with people I never would have been able to before.  It let’s me help you with your healthy journey by sharing my own health experiences.  I can also share the funny and goofy and adorable things that go on in my life, mostly involving Olaf my cat.  It’s great.

But there is a dark side to social media.  The thought that is always in the back of my mind before I post something.  Is this good enough?  Is this relevant?  Is this offensive?  Is this going to open me up to criticism?  I see all this shaming going on and it affects what I decide to put up or not.  Because of my past struggles with self-esteem and body image issues, I’m always slightly nervous when I put a piece of me out there.  The minute I hit publish or send that image or thought or post is no longer mine, it’s the world.  It’s terrifying.

I wish we could live in a culture of unwavering support instead of one of shame.  So many amazing and strong people are constantly bashed for the way they look or the things we do.  Someone posts a before and after picture of their weight loss transform and the comments start flowing in of how they’ve lost too much weight or they looked better before or they still have a long way to go to have the perfect body.  Someone tweets the dessert they enjoyed on their birthday and suddenly they’re bombarded with comments from the health nazis.

I posted this video from Blogilates creator, Cassey.  If you haven’t seen it, please watch it because I believe it really shows what it’s like to put yourself out there and try to help others but be brought crashing down by all the shaming and negativity out there.

I can’t fix this problem with one post.  I can draw awareness to it though, and maybe cause you to think about what you are saying to people.  Is the comment you’re about to post one of support or judgement?  Are you encouraging the people around you who are doing their best and accomplishing amazing things?  Or are you contributing to this culture of shame?

One positive comment can do a lot to help drown out the noise of negative comments.  Today offer support instead of shame and help change the way we share with the world.