The Crunchy Day of Gift Giving and Radio Listening
I really questioned whether or not it was a good idea to run a coupon code for the “sales” days coming up here, mainly because we’ve been so busy with orders already, we have a hard time keeping up with it. (Believe me, my loves, I am NOT complaining.)
However, it IS the holiday season and I DO want as many of you as possible to give your friends, loved ones, and family members handmade gifts (even if they’re not handmade by you), so please, please use this coupon code before it expires. (And, if you don’t want to buy anything handmade from me, that’s okay. Just PLEASE peruse Etsy or other places this weekend for more sales from conscious small businesses. SO many amazing deals to be had.)
So … SAVE 20% today through Saturday at Crunchy Betty’s Natural Market. USE COUPON CODE GRATITUDE to save some dinero and give the gift of natural loveliness this holiday season (or just give it to yourself, doggone it). PLEASE read below for an important note about applying the coupon code (sometime Etsy’s a bugger to make sense of when it comes to coupon codes).
Making Friends With Reality and Zooey Deschanel
If there’s any kind of blog post you’ll want to stop reading immediately, it’s the one that starts with the question, “What is reality, anyway?”
Let me ask you people a different question.
So …
Reality. What is it, anyway?
Some people might say it’s what the general population has preconceived and agreed on. Some people would say it’s only what can be studied, measured, and labeled. Others, something unknowable except through faith.
Or maybe reality is a vast government conspiracy plotted and implemented by the shadow elite, who are really alien overlords, and we’re all just living energy food, from which they feed through our television screens as we fall comatose to the rhythmic skirt swishings of sitcom star and secret reptilian Zooey Deschanel.
She does have gigantic eyes. Coincidence?
Wanna Love Your Body? Start With Loving Mine
As a life and wellness coach who works with women to improve self-esteem and body image, some people wonder how I became comfortable with my body. Did it come naturally or did I have to work at it?
Wait. I’m comfortable with my body!? Who said?
No, I am not totally comfortable with my body, but I work at it.
As women in this society, I’m not sure that it’s possible to reach a place where we are completely unaffected by social expectations of beauty or completely free of comparing ourselves to other women and images we see in the media.
And as we endeavor to navigate to a place of greater comfort with our bodies, sometimes it’s difficult to figure out where the line is drawn between a healthy desire to care for our appearance and the point at which that desire disables or disempowers us.
I mean, I LIKE to feel pretty. I do. I suspect I’m not going out on a limb to say you probably do to.
I don’t want to give that up.
Is that a terrible thing? I don’t think so.
It’s probably not surprising that research shows that positive feelings about one’s appearance predict well-being.
But, as women, society keeps asking us to evaluate and question our appearance, and this makes it difficult to have positive feelings about how we look. We are asked to think about whether our complexion is clear and even toned, whether our eye lashes are dark, thick, and long enough, if our lips are plump enough, if our hair has the right amount of body or is vibrant in color. We are asked to consider whether we are an attractive size and if our shape has the right proportions. We are asked to evaluate how plump our breasts are, how flat our stomach is, how wide our hips are, and whether the cellulite on our thighs is noticeable.
Politics, The Crunchy Way
So, if you’re not up on current world events, yesterday was Labor Day in the United States of America.
This is a holiday dedicated to not working and drinking beer. Also, 6:39 p.m. on Labor Day marks the precise moment after which women are not allowed to wear white. This may or may not be law (I believe it is in the Hamptons).
Labor Day, by the way, was a holiday invented by a person with the last name of Maguire. Historians debate whether it was Peter, Paul, or Mary Maguire. At their monthly Historians For Historical History meetings, the scholars sword fight over this contention before finally coming to full consensus that their sweet, sweet folk rock sounds are mighty soothing. And then the historians cry, hug, and wear bell bottoms.
Peter, Paul, or Mary invented Labor Day in order to give the weary and worn American Workers one much-deserved day off, hoping they’d never find out about Europe’s three-month “holiday” every year. So far, their plan is working, mainly because American workers are too busy sleeping, trying on shoes, or playing Angry Birds to care.
However, in these bleak economic times, it almost seems disrespectful to celebrate Labor Day. After all, if you watch the news, somewhere between 10-98% of the workforce is unemployed (the latter statistic I culled from Fox News).
We’re in the middle of a presidential election year, which is a period every four years where really rich men explain to peons how they totally get their pain. One of the big talking points of the two very stand-up, reputable characters up for election this year is: Job creation.
You Have An Amazing Body: Lip-Loving, Gratitude Meditation
Hey, baby. You have an amazing body.
Yes, you.
I don’t care if it’s fat or thin or missing a limb, your body is rollercoaster amazing. How do I know this? Because you’re reading this right now. Because you’re breathing. Because that bag of mostly water that carries “you” around is the vessel through which you experience everything. Everything.
Your body’s with you all the time, so it’s easy to take it for granted, or even hate it for not being what you think it should be. We’re going to start telling our bodies thank you for a while. Today, we’re going to start with the easiest part of our bodies to love.
Our lips.
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Crunchy Shopping!
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