Ever have a love/hate relationship with a place that you enjoy so much, yet it causes you great anxiety when you are there?

In my experience, this place has been the water’s edge (i.e., the beach).

I read this quote recently and realized it is true.  However, I believe in this battle against yourself we have two opponents: the outside world and ourselves.  I personally believe the latter is the harder fight.

For example, I was at the beach this past weekend with two good girl friends. We have different body shapes and sizes, yet we are fighting the same battles.

The first is our struggle with a society that constantly has images of how individuals should ideally look. The media puts out the message that we should change ourselves and our imperfections to a standardized “ideal” image in order to be happy and accepted.