Welcome to another edition of recs! I hope your month has been going well so far, or at least not horribly.
Today, I have a couple of things that have left an impression on me in the past month, and some that I’ve enjoyed for a while and would like to share.
A TikTok video about beauty
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserI watched this TikTok video by Ayandastood, I love her videos, and she talks about beauty as a social construct that thrives on exclusivity.
My favourite part of the video was at the end when she says presently, beauty dictates our worth which means how beautiful you are, according to society’s standards, determines how worthy you are to exist and be deserving of good things.
But she says we need to refute that logic and instead, equate our worth with our humanity because our worth is inherent to the fact that we are humans. Sadly, we live in a world where this has to be said.A YouTube video about hobbies
I’m 100% a hobbies girlie and if I could spend the rest of my life indulging in hobbies, I’d live a fulfilled life.
In the video, the creator takes us through her journey of rediscovering her hobbies—specifically reading, making art, and video games. As a reader and someone who’d like to get into making art, I found this intriguing. Plus, she’s given me a new perspective on video games. It was a fun video.
I’m into affirmations and wish I could be more intentional about using them. I’ve been getting daily I AM mantras in my email for over two years now and they’re a pleasant addition to my day. Sometimes, the mantra says exactly what I need to hear at a particular point. Like yesterday’s mantra:
Yoga recs
Yes, I’m also a yoga girlie. I’ve been practicing yoga for about three years and it’s one of the loves of my life. I love that it’s an exercise I genuinely enjoy, that most times I feel really good after, that it’s challenging and I get to see my body do things I couldn’t before.
One thing that prompted me to start was because I felt sad that I could no longer do back bends that were so easy for me as a child. Now I can do back bends, deep squats, and I’m finding out there’s so much more to yoga than just the poses.
If you’re interested in exploring or trying it out, here’s a great app to start with:
The Downdog app (you can get a free trial for up to a month!)
It’s great because you can tailor it to fit your level, your mood, you can choose the speed, the voice of your instructor and so much more. Plus you get to learn the original names of the poses (asanas).
Here are some of my favourite yoga YouTube channels:
She gives good vibes and I love joining her challenges (they range from 7-30 days).
Her voice is so calming and her classes leave you feeling refreshed.
She’s all about starting frow where you are and working up. I also like that she does short videos to explain different yoga poses and gives modifications.
All these channels have playlists for beginners and videos ranging from 5 minutes and more, so check them out if you want.
That’s it! What do you think about beauty standards? Would you try any of these out? Or have you already? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or by replying to this email.
Enjoy the rest of your month ✨
Absolutely! The main messages these days really seem to be contradicting the actions.
I hear a lot of great messages about being kind and accepting and seeing people's worth, but when you ask why, they don't stand on a foundation of reason. So then when hard times come, suddenly you can't convince yourself that you (or someone you dislike!) is worth being kind to.
I love that Ayandastood video so much I might burst! But ja, it is something that needs to be said, but that's because we live in cultures that say humans have come from the same primordial slime as mosquitoes and viruses, so humanity = valuable doesn't logically compute. If it's been survival of the fittest for so long, how do we convince ourselves that the weak have inherent worth?