An ocean of of bodies; booties and boobies. Juicing, squats, bikinis on flawless bodies, poolside with Ken, the perfectly proportioned muscle man. Scrolling through my Instagram, all I see under the hasthtag, “wellness”, is constructed perfection. Being well isn’t looking good, or having 50k followers. It’s feeling well, inside and out, loving yourself and accepting what comes with you, striving to improve. Wellness includes what goes in your body, what’s present in your body, what you do with it…it encompasses your entirety. It seems since social media has really grabbed a hold of all of our attention, fitness and wellness have been misconstrued and redefined as having to fit this unreal mold of healthy living.
Money doesn’t define your wellbeing. Fitness isn’t just about aesthetics, or how much you can squat. I think the function of the body, how well it moves, how it heals and repairs itself and how it behaves as a whole, with your mind and spirit, has been lost. There’s a stigma associated with yogis, bodybuilders, Olympians, models; yet each of these should be practicing each other’s methods. There was a time I really got down on myself because I saw all these fitness models with perfect butts and abs and then I realized the ones I knew actually had surgical enhancements to reach those. They told me directly. That’s when I realized all I knew about fitness wasn’t all that true.
Don’t let social media define what fitness and wellness are for you. I personally post things that are true to me and my beliefs. Whether it be a solid exercise that I know works and will help others, or a product that I personally use and believe in, or a quote that I know can uplift and inspire others, I try to stay true to who I am while helping others find themselves and stay true to who they are. @MissLedo