Earlier today I got an email from one of the regular readers of the website Abel and he suggested two post ideas I could write about. The first post was more philosophical in nature and I decided that I’ll save that post idea for a time in the future but I felt the 2nd post idea was something that is worth considering and addressing right now.

The question is “What would you do if somebody found out that you are wearing lifts?”

For some people who are height conscious they might decide to use the shoe lifts to make themselves look a little taller. For some people in the height increase community, the lifts are just another part of their lives, and they make them feel better about themselves when they are outside in public. For people who don’t use the lifts, it is hard for them to understand why a person would choose to wear the lifts to pretend or hide their true height. It seems that the people who don’t understand that so often, people need to do many things to hide their ego or sense of identity and self worth from attack or damage. We all do it, and I will not judge people.

For me, I remember that I tried out the lifts before in my period of obsession to see how they would feel and look. While I never went online or ordered those real lifts you find on some online stores,  I remember going to Walmart and buying a few insoles which were about half a cm thick and stacking them into a shoe or boot to see how well they worked. Overall, I found the experience to be rather nice. Walking out, I did feel a little more confident and less insecure about my height. It felt good and I continued to wear them until I met my girlfriend. At that point, I felt that it was time to go back to ordinary shoes.

I remember that I would always, at the back of my mind, be comparing myself in height to everyone that walked by. it was a really strange obsession I had and the shoes I was wearing made me feel taller and better throughout the day, even if it was a lie. I would find out years later that people actually have to live with some lies to be able to even function in life for certain situations. The ego defense mechanisms like denial, repression, justification, rationalizations, etc. all work perfectly to protect a person from going down the path of depression or suicide.

I personally think that if someone found out that I was wearing some form of height increasing footwear, whether it is the specially designed shoes, or the thick insoles you stuff into your shoes, I might be slightly embarrassed and ashamed at my insecurity and need to use them for a short while. Then I would explicitly tell them that I feel insecure about my height and enjoy wearing lifts because it makes me feel better and more confident when I am outside. Then mentally and emotional move on and go on about my day in some way.

I realize that at my age of nearly 30, so many people everywhere, everyday do things, act certain ways, and buy things for them to use which tries to hide some form of insecurity. For example

1. Balding and/or bald men who wear toupees and fake hair to try to cover up it up since they feel insecure about it.
2. Women suffering from breast cancer who wear hats and wigs to cover up their bald head which resulted from their chemotherapy treatment
3. Middle age men and women who are forced to wear adults diapers because they have some form of medical issue which causes them to have a low ability to control their bowel movements.
4. People who carry inflatable ring cushions/pillows for their severe hemorrhoids problems because they just can’t sit down without it.
5. Having a flatulence problems causing major public embarrassment when they fart at their work place or something similar.
6. The teenage guy who is very smart being prepared at all times carry 1 condom in his wallet in his back pocket for “interesting situations”.
7. The girl who wakes up at 5 am in the morning each day just so she can spend the “neccessary” 1 hour to put on 2 mm thick of makeup to hide what she thinks are her ugliness.
8. The former rocker who always must wear long sleeves to cover up the tattoos he got when he was younger and going through that phase of rebellion and self expression through skin decorations and body modifications.
9. The former suicidal girl who always must wear long sleeves to cover up the scars you would find on her wrists.
10. The middle age male who carries viagra around for “special occasions”.
11. The overweight men who wear girdles to give a look that they don’t have a ever increasing waistline.

At this point, I am willing to tell the readers that in the last few years, after my parents have retired in relative financial comfort, they have gone under the knife to correct for lazy eyes, moles, and crows feet. Me and my siblings have been quick to be confused at why they would choose to do it and made fun of them a little, but after maybe 10 minutes, the jokes and the the taunting stops because we realize that it doesn’t affect them since they are past all that stuff now. They wanted to go through with it, did it, had the resources to do it, and they don’t care about what even their family members have said.

Now, are they just being vain and superficial for wanting these things? Maybe, and maybe not. It doesn’t really matter.

At the area I live in, everyday I see women and men who walk by me with bandaids and wound gauzes on their nose and eye area, from them having that day plastic surgery to change something about themselves. The surgery was for cosmetic reasons, not from a real medical pathology. At some level they had felt it nessecary to have a surgeon cut into their face and change what they were born with because they didn’t feel like they were enough or beautiful enough. We could argue and be upset at them for a decision which we think is stupid but they don’t. People will do whatever they want to do and most of the time, there is little you can say or do to stop them from doing something, if they are really intent on doing it.

At this point in my life, I really don’t care what other people think about me, what I do, or what I think. When I think about the short time I have left on this earth, I realize that I have to just let go of the small things, and focus on the big things in life. If I cared too much about what other people thought of me and the judgement they have of me, it would paralyze me from taking action and changing the world in a world that makes it better.

I have decided to post a video I had shot of a outside shop stand where an old man was selling height increasing insoles at a certain location of the city I am living in currently.

We see that even celebrities do the same thing, maybe even more so with this clip of former Singer Jessica Simpson who was very pregnant come on the Ellen Show with her 5 inches heels. It seems that maybe Jessica Simpson also had a sort of short stature complex. Her current husband is a 6′ 3″ football player while she stands somewhere between 5′ 3″-5′ 4″ (source). She seems to have a strong resistance to stop wearing high heels (source) (source) (source). She has even joked that she wished to give birth to her kid in 4 inch Yves  Saint Laurent Pumps.