What's Real?

As I was running in the gym the other day, I couldn't help but notice the television screens and the different commercials that were playing on them. Running is the time that I usually don't focus on anything but myself and sometimes I meditate on rituals for the future or receiving messages from the Goddess since I am very connected to my heart at that time. The first commercial I saw was a Victoria Secret commercial where the words were "instantly adding up to 2 full cup sizes for maximum cleavage and fullness" and it hit me hard. The words were loaded and reflected our culture in so many levels. "Instantly" is a word that defines our times, we want everything now if not yesterday and instant gratification is part of our everyday culture. We do not want to wait, we do not want to work for it, we just want it now, we want it "instantly." The second thing I noticed was the fact that women were adding two full cup sizes... but what happens when you take your bra off? The two cup sizes disappear and reality hits. I always wonder why we live so focused on the outside that we don't mind being fake or not real. These days, women starve themselves to be skinny, they go through plastic surgery to hide their age, to add cup sizes, to be skinnier. Why can't we accept ourselves as we are and know that beauty comes from within and reflects in the outside? It is not the other way around. It is not being pretty on the outside that will make you beautiful inside and in faking our looks we are just allowing society to control us. Who is to say what is beautiful? There was a teacher that once told me "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" and we should be our own beholders and nobody else.

The other commercial was about butter, and yes, you guessed it "I can't believe it is not REAL butter." Again, another phrase that has lots of power. What is real? How do we define real? Who is not to say that reality is defined by each person and their perceptions. I always remember the movie The Matrix when they are sitting at the table in the ship and they are discussing how do they know the Matrix got the flavor of chicken right... who is to say what the real flavors are? Quoting the same movie, there was the part where the kid is shaping the spoon and then he says "reality is, there is no spoon" We create our own realities. We have the power to dream our reality into existence and when we realize that, we can work on defining what real is for each of us. Real is different for each person so don't let other define who you are, how you should be, or what real is. You can make your own path, you can define your own reality. You have the power to do so. Don't let others take your power away by defining yourself by other people's standards.

Blessings )0(