POSITIVE SELF-ESTEEM
AND BODY IMAGE

Everyone braved a heavy rainstorm to attend youth event Positive Self-Esteem and Body Image at University of Guelph. The event was led by youth co-ordinators Laelle Duff and Elizabeth Webster who was hired through the Federal Government Canada Summer Jobs program. Lloyd Langfield, Member of Parliament Guelph, kicked off the event by providing acknowledgment certificates to our youth co-ordinators and youth UofG partner organization STEM Relief Club: Ashley Vanderhaeghe (President), Jayden King (Vice president), Josh King (member), and Harvey Marchant (member).

Elizabeth Webster and Laelle Duff jointly presented the youth perspective where they defined body image, shared their understanding of what is self-esteem and how concerns about body image and self-esteem can cause eating disorders, depression, anxiety and less social relationships. We had an affirmation exercise where everyone was asked to post sticky notes with positive statements about themselves. Youth discussed and shared their challenges and solutions they apply in their lives, such as not always relying on others to validate them, celebrating their past achievements to lift themselves up when they are feeling down, seeing failure as a learning opportunity and not judging success based on an arbitrary metric and timeframe to achieve goals.

Yogi Srinivas Arka began his talk with a quote from the book ‘Petals of the Heart’, “Each person must be looked up as a star in the milky way of humanity.” Arka discussed how each person is unique with their unique qualities and seed knowledge.

“When you discover that seed knowledge, you feel excited and happy and you want to work with that thought, theme, or objective. You want to blossom to the fullest possible extent and thus feel so fulfilled and not only for yourself but also for humanity.”

Arka shared how you should approach a new situation with self-confidence.

“Take a moment, gather yourself because your mind is all over the place. Try to bring everything into one alignment. Feel your presence in the body. Cancel out all expectations. Walk in with full acceptance of the environment and the people. Try to unify your presence with the presence of everything and everyone.”

In regards to if we should listen to the opinions of others:

“You have to do what you have to do. You know what is good for you at the end of the day, deep down. It may not be intellectually or rationally. This knowledge comes from intuition, a deep-seated faculty that we all possess. It is emotion based, heart based and only with your feeling consciousness can you become aware of such guiding force which tells you what you should ultimately be doing.”

During Question & Answer portion, it was asked what advice should be given to youth to move
forward positively in life.

“Youth should value their presence. Their presence is very important to the world. They have arrived on the planet to do some great work, bring some great insights, contribute some special knowledge, adding more to the meaning of humanity. They should never undermine their existence, their presence. Without you, the world cannot feel fullness. Life is there to explore, expand and celebrate. Not to set our mind on only one thing. If we try and fail, it’s only a temporary failure. It’s a turning point to do better things. Failure is only a scenario and it’s not meant for us to be stuck there and to undermine our capabilities.”

During Question & Answer portion, it was asked what advice should be given to youth to move
forward positively in life.

“Youth should value their presence. Their presence is very important to the world. They have arrived on the planet to do some great work, bring some great insights, contribute some special knowledge, adding more to the meaning of humanity. They should never undermine their existence, their presence. Without you, the world cannot feel fullness. Life is there to explore, expand and celebrate. Not to set our mind on only one thing. If we try and fail, it’s only a temporary failure. It’s a turning point to do better things. Failure is only a scenario and it’s not meant for us to be stuck there and to undermine our capabilities.”

Dearian Seeperad and Chris Rogers played uplifting guitar and vocal performances of Stand by me by Ben E. King and I can see clearly now by Jimmy Cliff. We were all impressed by the poise and confidence of teenagers Tobias Wang and Myles Schajnoha from Guelph Youth Music Centre who brighten the event with classical violin performances. The event concluded with socializing and lunch.

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