This is a topic that I feel hugely resonates not only with the younger generation but truly with anyone. Learning to feel comfortable within your own skin is easier said than done sometimes. It’s a learning curve; a process that could take years and be based on varying factors and situations.
I know I personally struggled with it for a long time. Growing up, my body wasn’t up to par with the images of women that i’d see dominating the media. I learned quickly that the guys I had feelings for in middle school and highschool typically went for girls who were curvier than me, in all the “right” places. But what were the right places? What was this standard and who really made it?
It only took my first real relationship in college to help me start to erase this narrative that women had to fall into a certain constraint in order to look the way that a woman should look. I learned that love is not solely physical and I began to realize that all the harsh things I said to and about my body growing up were so unnecessary. But even more than just the way other people saw me, I came to acknowledge the importance of how I saw myself.
My body is my temple. It’s the thing that helps me climb mountains and swim in the sea. It’s the thing that keeps me going and gives my soul a wonderful home. I take care of it, so why should that not be enough? A few months ago I wrote an article about how our beauty is not defined by how desireable others find us and this is the truth i push to enforce every day. We need to find that beauty in ourselves.
Our bodies do so much for us everyday and while we need to take care of them, a HUGE part of that is showing them some love. It won’t always be easy. We’re gonna gain weight, lose weight, have insecurities about our skin or our hair or our teeth. From the top of our heads to the tip of our toes, I’m sure we can all point out something we’d change. But that’s not what we should be doing. We should find the things we love about ourselves and grow to be confident enough in ourselves that we take on the world, heart open, every single day.