Love, Compassion Means Acceptance

I KNOW VICTORIA’S SECRET: She Was Made Up By A Dude

BY TERRY CARTER, RTT, CHyp.

The Founder of World Wellness Today, The Home of Hope and Transformation

February is supposed to be all about love, but mental health issues do not take vacations.

It is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week this week (Feb. 20-26). And with Jax’s 2022 hit song Victoria’s Secret placing a spotlight on body issues, it has become obvious that girls and women are tremendously pressured by peers, social media, fashion and the media.

Jax’s powerful anthem about her youthful experience includes lyrics like this:

“Photoshop, itty-bitty models on magazine covers told me I was overweight.

I stopped eating — what a bummer. You can’t have carbs and a hot-girl summer.…

Cashing in on body issues, selling skin and bones with big boobs. I know Victoria’s Secret; she was made up by a dude.”

Females make up 90 percent of the 28.8 million reported eating disorder cases in America. According to statistics, 10,200 annual deaths are directly related to an eating disorder — that’s one death every 52 minutes. And approximately 26 percent of people with eating disorders attempt suicide.

Eating disorders are illnesses in which people of all ages, backgrounds, sizes, genders experience severe disturbances in their eating behaviors and related thoughts, habits and emotions. The most common eating disorders include: anorexia (slow starving), bulimia (including purging behavior) and binge-eating, according to a National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) fact sheet.

Among children statistics indicate a growing concern that can lead directly to improper eating and feeling judged by their appearance.

While some researchers believe this is the risk is based on hereditary factors, many therapists see eating disorders as coping mechanisms to gain acceptance with friends and when dating, as well as influenced by unresolved emotional wounds, such as verbal abuse, physical abuse, bullying/cyber-bullying.

Youth stats from ANAD include:

42 percent of first, second and third grade girls want to be thinner.

81 percent of 10-year-old children are afraid of being fat.

46 percent of 9-11 year olds are “sometimes” or “very often” dieting.

35-57 percent of adolescent girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting, and/or taking diet pills or laxatives.

The future of children and their mental health depends on each of us and how we treat others. Our example for our children is programming their minds. Use love, compassion and patience.

Take this week — and every week — to express care and acceptance to others. Acceptance inspires hope while critical judgement generally reflects on how you are feeling about yourself. Thus, the worst critics typically reserve the strongest, most harmful language for themselves.

Thank you for reading this article. If you know anyone who needs help with this issue, ask or guide them to WorldWellnessToday.com for a free conversation and immediate guidance and/or resources.

#WorldWellnessToday#mentalhealth#EatingDisordersAwarenessWeek#eatingdisorders#wellness#mindsetcoach

PARENTS: GIVE YOUR STUDENTS A LOVING BOOST THIS SUMMER — THEY NEED YOUR SUPPORT MORE THAN EVER

By Terry Carter, RTT, CHYP
Founder of WorldWellnessToday.com, the holistic life and healing site

The Covid Crisis in education may have ended this spring. But the effects of remote classes, growing responsibilities for teachers, administrators, contact tracing and more have diminished the educational progress.

Many suggest students should repeat their previous grade or be held back because very little new material was absorbed and retained in the school year from 2020-21.

Students and teachers feel as if nothing was learned in 2020 due to the pandemic-inspired, education disruption.

How can parents save the day? It is much more than catching up with classwork, concepts with a tutor or counselor.

Parents can become their child’s hero by empowering to form a partnership with our brain, improving self-confidence, motivation, embracing excellence academically and in extracurricular activities. Collaborating with your mind transforms lives.

The answers can vary somewhat depending on students, however, adding hours of study, rehashing facts and figures from last year is not the first and only step for parents. Some years ago, that may have been the only strategy to help.

This summer parents can lead their child back to their passion, brilliance and thriving again. Through encouragement and support, parents are building our children’s self-confidence, resilience and interests to engage life, sports and education fully once again.

Many young children and teens are responding to the pandemic by isolating themselves through depression, profound sadness, addiction

All of us suffered and are still recovering from the emotional, financial stress of the pandemic, remote classes, internet access, having enough PCs/tablets for our children, shortages of patience, time, attention and more.

Here are 3 Key Steps Toward Healthier, Happier Children Who Excel and Succeed

1. Your mind does exactly what it thinks you want it to do. If your child is not getting the expected results, their mind could be confused with the self-talk happening internally. The Solution? Begin to update that process with specific language like “I want to…” or “I am choosing to…” to avoid distractions, disconnection and procrastination. Communicate to your mind using very detailed, precise and positive wording. This is powerful and upgrades moods and chemicals naturally released in the body.

2. The mind is hard-wired to move toward pleasure and away from pain. This primary survival mindset is not to make life easier, but to ensure we live another day. When children link pain or illness with school/remote learning, the mind locks on to moving away from that habit. The self-talk of “I am dreading writing this paper because sitting here for hours drains. I am afraid of failing this class” creates an imaginary pain point, and the mind responds by pushing away from the table of education. The Solution? You choose what you link to pain or pleasure. And if you link writing to tremendous creativity and joy, then your focus and results will improve significantly. Try saying “I love writing or history. They are a challenge, but I have tremendous coping skills and love sharpening my brain because it shows what I have learned.”

3. Your mind understands how you you feel about something comes down to two things: The pictures you make in your mind and the words you say to yourself. The inner voice dialog we all use is conducted by our thoughts. To change the dialog, you have to change your mind, and that can be done powerfully by changing the words you choose to say and the mental images you choose to focus on.

These tips are much more than positive thinking. This is internally re-wiring your brain for success by communicating more effectively with purpose. These steps can help a student, child or adult to think better, feel better and improve their success rate with learned skills.

To get the best results with this exercise, close your eyes and relax. Love yourself enough to embrace the steps fully in trust and hope. As you finish, imagine who you want to be when you open your eyes.

Don’t just see that smart, happy, confident student in your mind, also hear him/her giving perfect answers, feel their confidence in helping others, touch the genius within you and that a permanent part of you. Also touch a part of the life of the student you envision, whether picking up a perfect test paper result in your hardest class or receiving a full scholarship from your first college choice.

•••For more study tips and 1-on-1 training to unleash your academic potential, call 281.541.4983 or book a free consultation with WorldWellnessToday.com•••