This Body, My Body – Love it just the way it is

June 12, 2015

As a 30 year old woman, I have learned to love my body just the way it is. Life has taught that there is no need to poison the mind with comparisons or judgement or believe the negative thoughts that people insist are truths. I’ve finally come to a place in my life where I feel confident, healthy, strong, sexy and wouldn’t change a thing about my body. I love every curve, stretch mark, muscle definition, thought in my brain and shape of my imperfect yet perfect body. I strongly feel in praising other women no matter their shape, size, color or any other meaningless stereotype we create to bring others down. So when Jen and I heard about #thisbodymybody movement by the ladies from Beyond the Clothing , I quickly knew I wanted to be a part of a positive message to make women feel beautiful and powerful, inside and outside.

Throughout my time, I didn’t always feel confident about my body. With the highs and lows that we call life, there has to be some pain in order to become a better person, have a happy mind and transform into becoming that confident, astonishing woman that lies within all of us. I was typically picked last for sports. I was insecure about my thighs that touched. I had no boobs in high school and consider that time my ugly duckling phase. I never understood why I was so brown and other girls weren’t. I was in toxic relationships were I lost my self worth. But even with all the negative thoughts, I have come to a point where I’ve pushed out the demons in my head and love what I see when I look in the mirror. Now, I love to be active and live a very healthy lifestyle. Now, I love my thighs and every time I hear Bootylicious by Destiny’s Child, I shake my jelly. Now, I love my small breasts because I can literally wear any blouse ever designed. Now, I love my bronze skin tone and feel like I have a sun-kissed tan all year. Now, I’ve been in an amazingly beautiful relationship with a man who made me feel like a REAL woman (if you are reading this, you know who you are).

Now at 30, I look at my body as a machine and I’m always in awe and fascination with the science (and often times mystery) of how our human bodies function, hello people…childbirth!!! This in itself can be an entirely own blog post. It’s truly the most impressive machine I’ve seen engineered, designed, created. I adamantly believe in fueling my body with the right food that will provide me energy and strength, the food that will keep my body and mind healthy and strong. This is not to say that I eat fruits and veggies all day every day. Of course I have a sweet tooth and crave “bad food” but most importantly, I do not beat myself up over the large bowl of pasta or that mid-day donut and coffee. Why? Because my body and health are the most precious things I have.

Now at 30, I look at my body as a temple. I’ve been blessed with such a wonderful life and have been fortunate enough to have a solid upbringing. I have a phenomenal mother who ridiculously loved and supported me. She taught me to respect my body and be modest and humble.

Now at 30, my body including my mind is blissful. I ‘m becoming more appreciative of exactly who I am and what makes me so special. There is no need to compare myself to other s because we all have our own unique story to tell and have different paths to take. I am grateful and accepting of everything I’ve got – from the moles on my neck to my funky looking pinky toe. Now I focus on my strengths, my passions, my capabilities, my endurance and I try take that positive energy wherever my body takes me. I feel a connection with my body and listen to what it’s telling me (intuition really is a girl’s best friend). I experience pain, loss, heartache, confusion, depression but in the end, I rise above it all and I am HAPPY! Because my body and my mind choose smiling (smiling’s my favorite – Elf fans?), laughter, love, joy and compassion.

I look forward to wherever this body, my body takes me and being able to define what beauty means to me. As Audrey Hepburn would say, “Happy girls are the prettiest.”

If you’re interested in reading more This Body My Body stories, check out the fabulous ones below including Jen’s story she shared on yesterday’s blog post!

An InLinkz Link-up