Body positivity is a journey, not a destination!
While flicking through last year’s photos on my phone, I discovered this image clicked in Prague. This photo struck me because I couldn’t help but notice a look of contentment on my face which I had seldom seen previously in a photo.
Most of my adult life I hated getting photos of myself clicked since I felt that I didn’t look good in them. I used to hide behind others whenever any photos were taken as I always felt conscious of the fat on my arms, my double chin and the rolls on my tummy.
This changed when last year I started my social media account ‘petite_and_curvy’ . I started using instagram as a pictorial representation of my journey of body positivity, self-love and confidence. For many people, social media impacts their self image negatively but for me it did the opposite. Expressing myself in images and posts really helped me understand my strengths and inner beauty.
While body positivity means many things to different people, for me it is about recognising the importance of our body’s role in attaining our highest potential. I have always believed that we all have an inner self which is inherently confident but is sometimes repressed owing to our internalisation of societal expectations and incessant media representation of an ‘ideal’ body.
Our inner self has the ability to achieve great things. Our bodies provide us the means through which we can realise our true potential which is why it is very important for us to love our body, take utmost care of it, be kind to it and respect it.
While it has taken me a very long time to achieve this state where I have realised that we should love our body because it is worthy of being loved irrespective of size, shape and colour, my journey is still not complete. I do feel insecure sometimes owing to my height and weight but I understand that becoming body positive is a journey, not a destination.
So if you too are on a journey of body positivity, know that it is ok to be insecure and to have doubts. It is part of the process of becoming body positive. Ultimately, the most important thing is to respect your body, take good care of it and love it so that it can help you to achieve all that you truly want to.