You see it all the time – photos and stories showcasing someone’s yearlong journey towards a better body transformation.  Before and after photos of a more slender, or more muscular, body shape.  Then they chronicle how they came to the end of their journey – the sacrifices they made, the time they spent at the gym, the refusal of cake or alcohol.  #TransformationTuesday was born and more and more people shared their physical transformations with the world.  All of which is a good thing – if done properly and for the right reasons.  I’m not here to knock the physical transformation movement, but I am here to question why it is the only movement we tend to highlight.

Why don’t we see more mental, emotional or spiritual transformations?  Why aren’t people excited to share their journeys toward a more abstract, more personal change?  Is it because the physical can be more easily seen?  Or perhaps it is more of a societally accepted growth/development/change? The physical, outward appearance of a person is easily judged since we are bombarded with images of what the “ideal” body looks like.  Fad diets, gym memberships, magazines/fashion houses, New Year’s resolutions are all geared toward our physical existence; therefore, it only makes sense that we as a society would strive for what we are told (or sold) as ideal.

What if we started chronicling our journeys toward mental, emotional or spiritual growth, highlighting the changes we make towards finding ourselves internally?  If we could work more openly on our own personal acceptance, our own personal belief system in ourselves, would we have a more accepting society?  If we each strived to becoming mentally strong, emotionally stable, and spiritually guided, would we be more accepting of one another, less hateful toward one another, and more loving of one another?  If we were to put more effort in the understanding of our feelings and emotions, more effort in the calming of our heart, mind and souls, would we become blind to the differences we have and instead more open to embracing those differences?

I pose these questions to you because I question them myself.  Have I changed enough, matured enough, to transform my own emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing?  I’m definitely not there quite yet, but I know that 2019 will be a year of many transformations for me.  I look forward to the growth, to the change, to the journey.  What about you?  Will 2019 be the year that YOU start toward an improved mental, physical and spiritual version of yourself?