Last week several Her Campus Exeter girls went to the Odeon cinema to watch a screening of the Australian documentary ‘Embrace.’ It’s fair to say we came out changed women!
The Australian documentary was a wonderful way to make us feel confident about our bodies and really learn that looking like a Victoria secret model is not the most important thing in the world!
Here are the main things we learned…
1. We are more than just our weight
Weight doesn’t even give an accurate representation of health and happiness! The documentary featured a girl suffering from Anorexia who pleaded with the audience to never diet, restrict or to lose weight as it can ruin your life and take over your life- just as it had taken over hers. This was a powerful statement that showed how losing weight or restrict to lose weight can spiral into an eating disorder and can potentially be life destroying and fatal!
2. Everyone is beautiful
When surrounded by billboards promoting Karlie Kloss as the ideal of beauty is it hard to accept the way you look. However, walking down the street you can see so many people who are beautiful- and most of them do not look like Karlie Kloss! No matter your size, no matter whether you have a thigh gap, you still are beautiful!
3. We all waste so much time caring
It’s easy to do: you have a holiday coming up and you spend the weeks beforehand dieting and doing endless cardio to ensure you ‘look your best’ what the documentary showed us was that this is actually a waste of time! We will probably not feel any more confident or happy with our bodies after weeks of energy given to losing weight! The documentary presenter- Taryn Brumfitt- starts off by showing how she competed in a bikini competition after having children and how whilst on stage she realised how much time she had wasted in the last twelve weeks to get on stage, and how she felt just as self-conscious despite appearing to be the ‘ideal’ body shape! Life is short guys and whilst at health and fitness we do totally want everyone to be healthy and fit! We also want you all to live! So throw out the scales and don’t get extreme just enjoy health and fitness but also live your life!
4. Be careful what you say
This was one of the most powerful things we took away! Taryn realises that she would never want her daughter to even think about the size of her stomach or the size of her thighs, but she spends hours a day critiquing these areas on her own body. This changed her outlook and she realised that she would never want her girl growing up as insecure about her body as she had done! We all need to be careful in what we say- don’t go around saying you look ‘fat’ or critiquing your body- as this can impact others and rub off to make others feel insecure. And we are ALL beautiful and perfect in our own ways!
5. Embracing is a process
We all came out the cinema feeling empowered to change the world and make everyone love themselves! Yet within a day we were back to standing in the mirror and pinching the fats on our stomach! It takes time every day to really FORCE yourself to stop thinking about these things! We all have to practice and really force ourselves to NOT critique how we look or feel insecure! We need to focus everyday on what we ACHIEVE and not on how we LOOK! It is a process and no-one can be confident in their skin day or night! But we can learn to really focus our energy and time on other things- and THAT is how we change the world!
The documentary (and the surround ‘Body Image Movement’ campaign) is inspiring for boys and girls alike! It shows that you can have ‘imperfections’ or can even be a supermodel and still be miserable and uncomfortable! We all need to go about our lives and really learn to look at the beauty in everyone- AND IN OURSELVES! Dedicating our lives to being a Victoria secret model will not bring us happiness, counting calories and cutting carbs will NOT make us happy and spending our lives feeling negative will also NOT make us happy! We have to live our lives, set good positive examples and really show how EVERYONE can learn to EMBRACE themselves! #Embrace!
Learn more: https://bodyimagemovement.com/embrace-the-documentary/