Becoming Body Positive

BECOMING BODY POSITIVE

Body positivity is something I have struggled with my entire life. I have cried in changing rooms and stood in front of mirrors poking and prodding myself, wishing I could look like somebody else. I have hidden myself in baggy clothes because I was so unconfident in my body and had some awful comments made to me; comments which have stuck with me for years.

I am sure many of you reading this can relate to these experiences. They are difficult and they leave their mark. They make you feel unworthy and even alien in comparison to other people. When I finished college last year, I decided I had enough of feeling like this. I thought to myself, at eighteen years old, I still have decades of life left on this earth. I don’t want to look back and see that I spent the majority of it worrying about and wanting to change my body. This thought was the turning point for me because I want to enjoy my life. Even if I spend the next seventy years being upset about my body, it won’t magically change, so I might as well begin to love it now.

I started by unfollowing influencers or celebrities online who made me feel unworthy, the kinds of accounts I would scroll through and just feel utterly awful about myself in comparison. Social media can be very harmful to self-confidence, so I also limit how much time I spent on it per day.

Also, when I realised how much negativity I was spewing at myself every time I looked in the mirror, I knew this had to change. Automatically, my thoughts were so critical. I was scrutinising every part of my body. So I decided to make a conscious effort to think of one positive thing when I looked in the mirror, before my brain could even begin to be negative.

I jumped out of my comfort zone and started to wear the clothes I wanted to wear; not the ones I felt I had to wear. I experimented with different styles and wore colours that I wouldn’t have before. It felt uncomfortable at first. I was so used to the ‘safety blanket’ of oversized, muted clothes, but slowly it started to feel more normal. I still love to wear oversized clothes, but I'm wearing them for all the right reasons now; because I want to and not because I feel like it’s the only thing I can wear.

Of course, down days still happen. I might order clothes online and none of them fit how I want them to. I wake up some mornings feeling very low about the way I look or I sometimes find myself comparing myself to someone on Instagram. There is no quick fix to becoming body positive - it is a journey and it is certainly not an overnight one! Becoming truly comfortable in your own skin and loving the person you are is one of the most difficult things to do.

But, I want everyone reading this to know that you are so much more than all your negative thoughts, all the comments and criticisms, all the self-doubt you may have. If there’s one thing you take away from this post, let it be this: the journey towards body positivity is difficult, yes, but not impossible. Taking one small step each day, although it might seem like nothing, it is so powerful. Truly loving yourself is one of the best feelings in the world, and I want each and every one of you reading this to know you are deserving of such a wonderful feeling.