Challenges with The Aging Challenge

Social media is full of two sided posters of all those who decided to participate in the Aging Challenge.  From time to time all kinds of challenges come along but this one has been of particular amusement to me.  Social media in itself oftentimes presents pretenses and ongoing attempts from people going the extra mile to put forth their flawless best and to be and feel relevant.  This isn’t to say that those who have participated are not – because many that I have seen truly are.  The instructions seemed a bit confusing to most – however I saw two sets of instructions.  One instruction was to post a picture of self from 10 years ago next to a recent picture and one was to post your very first facebook profile picture of yourself next to a recent picture of self.  Amazingly, most selected pictures were….well….”doctored up”.  I had to inquire of a mutual friend the new appearance of someone I hadn’t seen in a while – looking perfectly flawless, only to discover it’s a result of surgery! The complimentary feedback has surely gotten said person feeling on top of the world and I get it that some people thrive off this kind of attention. But is this what one really needs for validation?  As I shared on facebook, I looked at one presentation and thought to myself, if the person removed the eyebrows,  eye lashes, make up, jewelry, and hair, she’d look like a brown egg!  Funny maybe, but not really!

The truth is – as I believe it – is that within every human there is beauty.  It may not be what we have gotten used to – ie those who are “aesthetically blessed” to look at with the human eye but I believe that the good within us comes out as beauty.  Relying on validation from people who are not necessarily true friends anyway may boost the ego for a moment but real true self-worth will come from inside when you can be totally comfortable with yourself.  Likewise, when you have flaws, you can address those with yourself as well and make the choice to do something about it – or remain as you are.  I encourage everyone to take a moment to reflect upon all those things which make you beautiful with or without social media validation.  Always be true to yourself first and foremost – and what others think will not define you.