Traci Elliott

06/15/2023

Philosophy by Dr. Seuss.

04/30/2023

The unconscious (and sometimes VERY conscious) water in which I have spent 4 decades swimming. 🏊‍♀️ *Body image*

This is a great article. Even though I’m gen X, the story is the same - generation after generation of “never quite being (ok) enough”.

Raise your hand if you’re guilty of the continuation of it. 🙋‍♀️ I am. I’ve swum in these cultural waters for a lifetime, so therefore my girls unconsciously swim in it too. I, of course, have never DIRECTLY passed down these body shaming messages……so at least I thought. 🤔 How about with my example? What about my own fitness and allowable foods (restriction) routine? I’ve always been conscious of saying nothing about their bodies. But what about the messaging about what they ate? Isn’t, “as long as it’s healthy” and “move your body because it’s good for you”, etc. some kind of messaging that there’s a “right” and “wrong” way to be?

The problem for me is this….I do believe you should eat healthy and move your body for longevity and vitality. So what’s the balance? Ugh. IDK. 🙄 But trying to find it is just another way to beat myself up.

What do you think?

The vernacular of deprivation, control, and aspirational containment that pervaded the pop culture of the ‘90s and 2000s.

04/27/2023

Bravo! What a difference perception makes. ❤️

02/18/2023

😂😂

This made me giggle this morning.

02/24/2022

Too funny: 👇👇
Please watch for the laugh. 😂
And then for the commentary. 🤔

Topic: aging and f*ckability…..are you still working at it? Or letting go gracefully.….

For me, I try to take damn good care of myself ….

But sometimes, when I find myself still talking sh*t to myself in the mirror…

Or stepping on the scale….

Or editing myself too strictly…..

I gotta step back and ask:

Why am I doing this?
What am I trying to fix?
Who is it for?
For me? Really? Is hair dye and an 18 hour fast really for me?

If that’s true, would I be doing this if I lived alone on a deserted island? 🏝

Probably not.😬

Even if I get all feministic and say “it’s just for me and nobody else”……is that really true? Or is it so I can admire my reflection more? Myself more?

Because if there were no mirrors, I wouldn’t know or care, right? 😜 I’d just wanna feel good.

But the world is FULL of mirrors. Full of people and media to let me know where I could be falling short. 🙄

Overtly with the 20 yo selling wrinkle cream. 😡
And covertly with the wrjnkle-less, puffed up, non-expressive faces of the desperate actresses over 40 still trying to get work. 😓

But, as always, I get to CHOOSE….💪 Not just unconsciously REACT and adhere.

So, I’ve stopped dying my hair.
Weighing myself.
Checking for age spots.

But!….I am still wearing makeup when I go out.

Baby steps. 😏

I still catch myself struggling.

In little BS ways. Every. Damn. Day.

When I feel anxious. Or stressed. Or blue.

I ask myself what I’m striving for.
Struggling for….

Is it what I really want?
Or what the culture and conditioning has told me I should want?

Because I always get to CHOOSE what I bring in and let go of in life.

I choose to let go of my f*ckability. ❤️

Amy stumbles upon a group of her show-business heroes (Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Patricia Arquette) celebrating a special occasion.About Inside Amy ...

02/16/2022

This girl is 26!!! People need to back the f*ck off. 😡
At 26 I was sitting on my a$$ in a cube still trying to figure out what to DO with my life.🤔
This (almost) fearless athlete is flying down a hill at 80 mph just trying to shave 1/2 a sec off her time….
Probably asking herself 🤔
“Should I risk my life and limbs LITERALLY for the gold? 🏅 The endorsement deals? 💰
The ROI on my family’s investment🤞?
My nation’s pride and bragging rights 👏?

Is it worth it?”

Here’s the thing…..
Maybe she DID risk it all and still couldn’t shave that 1/2 second. So what? She’s there! She TRIED! What has any of us done to compare with the grit it takes to get to this level? 💪

But she’s still shamed for “failing”. For being imperfect. Becomes that’s the ideal of this culture….perfection. 💯

ATHLETES ARE NOT COMMODITIES!
Stop treating them like show ponies. They are people! Practically children still. And now a “failure” at 26? But still better than 99% of the world? Where does she go from here? I’m afraid for her. And for all of these amazing kids as when anything less than 🏅 is a disappointment…..

And when at 26 you’re a disappointment, life becomes nothing but a series of apologies or overcompensations ❤️

The pressures she is facing right now, from an ignorant nation and a callous media team, would destroy any of us

01/20/2022

👉You do not have to be good.
👉You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
👉You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
👉Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
👉Meanwhile the world goes on.
👉Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
👉Whoever you are, no matter how lonely…..the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting - over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

❤️ by Mary Oliver.

It’s time to take your place.

08/18/2021

I ❤️ this so much!!

08/18/2021