I’m sitting at LAX en route back from a business trip waiting to board my plane. On the way to the airport I heard an ad on the radio that inspired me to write this. It went something like this – Come to our Plastic Surgery Centre – get a tummy tuck, liposuction or a breast enhancement and then you will finally be able to feel good about yourself this summer… book your appointment today.

Immediately, I felt charged and wanted to bring the plastic surgery centre down – how could they be giving women these types of messages that they will only feel good once operated on? I thought about it a little longer and realized I can’t change the surgery centre or the advertisement, and they do have their place in our world, but what I can do is use it as an opportunity to write about the importance of feeling good about ourselves from the inside. Feeling good about ourselves doesn’t begin once we’ve got the tummy tuck, the new car, the new jeans, the new ring or the liposuction. Feeling good about ourselves starts now: ringless, rolls, lips, old car and all.

No matter how many tummy tucks we have, pounds we lose, or purses we buy the void is never filled. We may feel good about ourselves for a short time and then the void sets in again and its time to lose more pounds or buy a new purse or new boobs. I am not saying that we should be overweight or dressed in scrubs or say ‘no’ to plastic surgery … what I am saying is that we must start feeling good about ourselves NOW, regardless of how we look or what we have. Accepting and loving where we are at. Feeling good about ourselves pre-surgery, pre-lost poundage or pre-employment. Nothing outside ourselves can make us feel better about ourselves unless we feel good about ourselves from the inside first.

This run around the hamster wheel, chasing things outside ourselves to feel better about ourselves, will continue until we stop in our tracks, ask ourselves what void we are trying to fill, what is it we really need and how can we give ourselves the love and adoration we are craving.

Today, stop in your tracks, notice where you feel your are falling short, what you are hating or making wrong about yourself and then ask this part of you, how can I love and accept you more? Watch things open up for you and love explode all around you the minute you choose to accept and love every inch of you – wide hips, rolly stomach and all.