This One Small Act of Self Love Will Change Your Relationships
Have you noticed the movement that is happening? People accepting and celebrating all body types. People embracing all that they are, perfect imperfections and all! After a lifetime of self-loathing and internal battles, people, women, are starting to look beyond their size or shape or scars and instead they are appreciating their glorious selves for what they truly are. How liberating! For so many years we have been taught to think a certain way. To only value one type of body – you know the one, check out the billboards around you and you will see plenty of her. Yes, she is beautiful, but so are YOU. As children, we are taught to treat people with kindness and accept people’s differences, but then somewhere along the line it starts to change. We start to read magazines, look at things on TV, listen to adults around us talk about other adults in a criticizing way. The message gets more and more skewed and before we know it we are teenagers or young women looking in the mirror with disgust and shame, and telling ourselves we are not good enough.
This movement is massive. It is life changing. It is allowing women to stand tall and proud and be their authentic selves, regardless of how thick their thighs are or how perky their breasts are. Maybe you are already part of the movement, maybe you aren’t! Maybe you have heard about it or seen it happening, and would love to join in, but have no idea how or where to start. It starts with acceptance. Acceptance of you, and acceptance of her… Stop looking that gorgeous woman at the gym up and down – yeah she may be twice your size but so what!? Stop whispering about that beautiful woman in the change room who has tattoos from head to toe, just because you ‘don’t agree with them’. Stop telling your friend that she shouldn’t wear bikinis because she isn’t as young as she used to be. Just stop. Stop for a moment and think about how brainwashed and brazen we have become to pass judgement on other women. What gives us the right? Habit, ignorance, insecurities? Nothing. Nothing at all gives us the right to judge someone based on their appearance.
Related: 7 Body Positive Quotes Every Woman Should Know
On the flip side, how are you feeling about you lately? Too jiggly, too hairy, too flat chested? Have you ever stopped and thought about how the stories you tell yourself could impact someone else? When you proclaim to others that your cellulite disgusts you, perhaps without knowing that the person you are talking to has even more dimples than you do, what message does that send to them? If you devalue yourself due to the texture of your skin, you sure as hell can’t think too fondly about them with their bumpy butt right? When you say that you are ashamed of yourself due to carrying some extra weight, what does that say about the girl next to you that perhaps weighs even more than you do? Clearly she should be hanging her head in shame right? Wrong… If you can not accept and value yourself just as you are, you may be unintentionally devaluing other women around you that may also have some of the so called ‘flaws’ you do. When you embrace your shape, size, skin colour, you are effectively giving permission to other women around you to do the same. If you can embrace you for all that you are, then perhaps so can she!
It is worth mentioning something important to me right here. I 100% advocate a holistically healthy lifestyle. Although I believe everyone should embrace and honor who they are right in this very moment, I also believe that by doing so, we should be aiming to live a life of wellness and happiness. If you truly honoured and appreciated your body, you would want to look after it and treat it appropriately, so they really work hand in hand. I also do not believe that by embracing who we are right now, doesn’t mean we don’t want to change or improve. Most of us want to improve and grow in many aspects of our life, and that is a beautiful and healthy thing to do. You may want to become fitter, or more flexible, or stronger, or more spiritual or leaner and that is great. However, in order to be that person you want to be, you need to honor the person you are now. Besides you aren’t going to get where you want to be without that incredible woman (YOU!) doing the work! That chick you are right now, she is AMAZING!
Related: 10 Reasons To Adore Your Body
