Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, ‘body shaming’ has become a serious issue. To put someone’s body down based on your interpretation of perfection, is definitely not OK.
Body shaming is real and is common place.
The worst kind of body shaming doesn’t come from other people, it comes from ourselves. We all want to love our body but we think that loving our body is the destination. It’s not. It is a relationship, a journey.
Start today. It’s time to love your body – the whole kit and caboodle.
You cannot mentally bash your body into ‘perfection’. It’s time to stop. Having a body you love starts from within. It works inside out, not outside in. If you love your body mentally and emotionally, your physical form will follow suit over time.
The world is a vicious place. The struggles we deal with are the images of ‘perfection’ portrayed by the media. Why? For no other reason but to make you a slave to consumerism. To give an unrealistic image of what is attractive, yet always have it just a fingertip out of reach.
Our beloved fitness industry creates long term mental issues and sells short term physical solutions, in order to get repeat customers. For this reason, I encourage you to start loving your body… today.
We’ve been led to believe that if you write down a weight loss goal, achieve it, then you and your body image will live happily ever after. Well, unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. Love isn’t your reward for ticking a box, it’s a process.
You have this vehicle (your body) for the rest of your days, and you need to build a happy and healthy relationship with it, otherwise you will be fighting this imaginary mental battle day in and day out.
Just imagine how many beauty companies would go out of business tomorrow if we all woke up and decided to love our bodies. And I mean if we GENUINELY loved our bodies. Don’t just say it to let yourself off the hook and shove a cupcake down your throat. Because that’s not loving your body. If you loved it, you would nourish, not poison it.
A lot of people find themselves reaching for an image that isn’t real. The girl in the magazine? Well, she doesn’t even look like the girl in the magazine.
I am not telling you that you need to stop dreaming or not to have aesthetic goals. I am saying that if you want to love your body then it starts from within. If you think that you won’t love your body until it gets on the front cover of a magazine then you are fooling yourself. Who wants to look up to somebody who hated their body until a photo shoot? You have to love your body to get there. Your outer body is an expression of what’s inside.
It’s also time to stop comparing yourself (as the merrymakers would say, comparison is the thief of joy). You are you, they are them. I have people walk in to the gym in their first week and say something along the lines of “Just so you know, I have weak arms and I am un-coordinated”. My initial thoughts are that this person needs to change mentally if they are going to have any chance of changing physically. However, my response to them is – “weak compared to what?”
It’s a good question, isn’t it?
Walking in and saying that to your coach is the direct equivalent of walking up to your university professor on your first day and saying “Just so you know, I am dumb and self-diagnosed illiterate.” Your self-limiting beliefs are stalling your development. If you wouldn’t say these words to someone else, then sure as hell don’t say them to yourself.
The only thing you should ever be in competition with is your potential. Not who you were yesterday, or your next door neighbour – just simply your own potential.
We base our own perception of ourselves on some random definition of what we deem to be ‘perfect’. We’re not perfect. None of us. Although we may understand that we are not going to achieve perfection, we still feel the need to bash ourselves for not getting there. It’s ok not to be perfect, in fact it’s beautiful to self-express. Perfection is unrealistic and simply not authentic. It’s just not human – so let it go.
What is seen as a fault to one person is a spot of beauty to another. Remember that a scar shows experience. It shows you tried and failed, or maybe even won. It shows you have been through something and come out the other end just that little bit stronger. Unfortunately, most of our scars are mental. People cannot see them, in fact, we even choose not to see them ourselves. But they are there and they still sting.
We are our hardest critic and now it is time to become your most humble fan.
It’s ok to start loving yourself. To stop bashing what you have over what you don’t. If you want the body you love then you must first learn to love the body you were given. Because if you can’t love yourself and love your body, how are you going to teach your kids to love theirs?
Put simply: you will never love your body, until you love your body.
It is not going to change like a switch over night. It’s a process. So every time you hear that bully in your head telling you lies, breathe and remind yourself: it has less to do with the cards you are dealt and more to do with how you deal with them.
Now get off the computer and go compete with your potential.
Func up your life,
DDN