It’s time we get honest with ourselves as women today—we’re being lied to. Today’s cultural beauty standards are messed up. We all know it, and we all think we can resist the pull to look a certain way. But most of us—and our sisters, daughters, and nieces, too—are still striving for a broken kind of beauty while feeling like we’re not good enough.

In this episode, I’m sitting down with Melissa Johnson, a marriage and family therapist. The lie of today’s beauty standards eventually led her to battling an eating disorder. Through that experience, she saw that chasing broken beauty breaks us as women in so many ways. And she also realized that true, soul-deep beauty is not impossible—it abounds in us and all around us. 

Melissa and I are talking about how to uncover the hidden damage cultural lies about beauty have on your mind and soul, how to reconnect with God, in whose image you are made, and how to walk away from shame and striving.

If you find yourself wishing that you were thinner or smaller, have a list of things you wish you could change about your appearance, or compare your body to other women’s bodies, and you’re longing for a more self-compassionate relationship with your body, sister, this letter is for you. 

Topics we talked about in this episode:

• Melissa’s story as a Christian woman

• The origin story of Melissa’s new book, Soul Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless and what you’ll find when you open the cover

• The unhelpful (but normalized) beliefs we are buying as women when it comes to beauty

• What happens when we embrace our bodies as miracles and what it looks like to practice gratitude for our aging bodies

• What living in loving community with other women looks like

• How Melissa defines true beauty

• The ways that Melissa lives out the feminine genius in her own daily life

Resources you should check out after listening to this episode:

• Pick up a copy of Soul Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless

• Visit Melissa’s website, Impossible Beauty and listen to the Impossible Beauty podcast

• Follow Melissa on Instagram

• Check out the sponsor for today’s episode, CORDA, and use the code LETTERS to get 10% off your purchase at checkout

• Pick up a copy of the Letters to Women book (and use the code LETTERS at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase!)

• Check out my monthly newsletter, Naptime Notes

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