It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Everywhere we go silver bells and mistletoes are setting the mood to start shopping. Yesterday I stood in line at a local department store for more than 20 minutes! I love shopping, but before giving in to all the pressure to spend my time and money on getting and giving, I want to remember to be thankful.
They say Christmas is “the most wonderful time of the year” but this is only true if Thanksgiving comes first.
Forgetting to be thankful only sets us up to fail when marketing bombards us with the temptation to focus on our wishes and wants. Of course, this is a problem we face every day, wether Christmas is in the air or not. If we don’t appreciate the things we have, the desire for more can control our lives. For us women, this desire can become the source of our Beauty Battle. After all, marketing is always bombarding us with a beauty wish list.
“Buy this, it will make you look beautiful.”
“Wear that, it will make you feel confident.”
Feminine beauty is a huge marketing tool and it’s not likely that the media will stop tempting us to compare ourselves to the super models any time soon.
They use beautiful women to market because beauty creates desire. Men turn their heads toward an attractive woman without even thinking. Women do too. The model’s beauty naturally challenges our’s to be better. Of course professional marketers are going to use this law of nature to their advantage! It’s not their fault when their tactics conflict with our confidence. Is it?
We all want peace, health and happiness, as well as beauty, and they market to those desires things like prescription drugs, right? The problem is: a drug company is required to disclose the side affects of their product; the beauty industry is not. Perhaps they should.
“Dressing like this model may cause men to gawk at you or make you may feel disrespected and devalued.”
“Side affects may include deceitful, manipulative backbiting of jealous female friends and acquaintances.”
Beauty is not all it’s played up to be. Striving for the status-quo marketed to us is no more fun than trying to keep up with the Jones’s during Christmas. Instead of enjoying what we have and who we are, we are stressed out comparing ourselves to others. This is how Christmas, or any marketing, can kill your confidence. So what’s the antidote?
Gratitude empowers contentment.
A content woman is far less apt to fall for the pressure to be perfect than the one who is focused on what she does not have or like. Appreciating the figure, features and style you have (your Img.ID) disarms the temptation to be and have that which is marketed to you.
As we enter into the hustle and bustle of this holiday season, let’s prepare our hearts with the peace and strength that comes with counting our blessings. You have been blessed with more than just your family and possessions. You have been given a beauty all your own. BE who you were designed to be and enjoy who you are and what you have. Don’t let marketing kill that.
What are you grateful for this year? As you consider the list of your answers to this popular Thanksgiving question, be sure to include something about your image. You don’t have to post it or say it out loud (we all know that will invite people to call you vain!) but take a moment to thank God for the beauty you do have–because you do.
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Catrina Welch is an inspirational author and speaker whose passion is empowering women and girls to BE and LET BE. Her expertise as a cosmetologist, image consultant and Biblical life-coach, as well as her personal experiences with abandonment and grief make her message relatable to anyone dealing with rejection, betrayal or loss.
Her latest book, CONFIDENT BEAUTY: Reflecting the One Who Made You, with the Images in your Mirror and in your Soul, will soon be available as an audiobook. Autographed copies of all her books are available on her website at www.CatrinaWelch.com
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