Time for a revolution .....

I remember watching a documentary about the beauty industry and how much it’s worth. There were medical people and PR people and sales executives, CEO’s, women on the shop floor and influencers and they all said more or less the same thing. The only way the beauty industry works (and for beauty include ‘wellness’) is to say to people ‘You have a problem. And here’s the solution. It’s only £10.99’. No problem, no purchase, no purchase, no profit.

If you like what you see in the mirror, if wrinkles and ageing doesn’t bother you, if you don’t feel the need to be thinner than you are, if your hair is just your hair and if you’ve found that your old lipstick and usual mascara works perfectly well, then you aren’t getting with the programme. The programme being ‘buy more shit’.

But it really doesn’t stop or start with the beauty and wellness corner of the world because there are so many other ways we are told we aren’t doing it right. What we eat, wear, sit on, where we go on holiday, what we drive, watch or read, all of it, somewhere along the line, is scrutinised and judged. We all fall foul of it somewhere along the line, even if it’s just buying those Vitamin C tablets because we think we might not eat enough broccoli.

It takes real courage to unplug, to be not influenced and to walk our own path, happy in our own skin, resisting the adverts and the how-to-be-red-carpet-ready articles online and in magazines. And even more courage to look inwards and like what we see there too, all our fears and vulnerabilities, the bits of our personality we struggle with, that trip us up, the insecurities and flaws that might make us short-tempered and difficult to be around.

I’m getting better at it. I think I’m basically nice, a good sister and friend and parent, trying to be kinder than yesterday and grateful for the life I have. Yep, there’s a good way to go. I’m a million miles from enlightenment, and mindfulness remains an ambition rather than a reality but I discovered a decade ago that I like myself more as the years go on and as for ageing, well, what’s the alternative?

As the quote says ‘In a world that profits from self-doubt, liking yourself is rebellious act.’

Let’s start a revolution.

Go well,

Kit