Embrace Your Body Through Self-Love
Understand your body before someone comments on it. Mostly, our perception of self is stereotyped through how others perceive our bodies. Slim or fat, if you are comfortable in carrying it, then just ignore the hollow words. At least once in life, we all would have become victims of body shaming.
You look like a drumstick! You will not find a suitable boy, go and eat something. Oh! What happened to you? You gained weight, start work out.
Sounds familiar right! Trust me, most of us fall into the trap when we hear such comments. How many times we all have looked into the mirror in disgust, ignoring all the beautiful things we possess. Just to become the ideal beauty in someone else’s dream.
In haste, I ended up doing everything I can to fit into other’s beauty lists. Harming my body and torturing it. I tried legs up the wall pose midnight. I was conscious about my body even in sleep. People said I don’t look my age. Some said I am too short. So I tried to walk and stand on my toes all the time to increase my height, even though it hurt my foot.
Most of us end up in tiring workout sessions that are neither good for our body nor mental health. Exercising out of self-love and exercising due to body shaming are two different things. Staying fit is not about becoming thin or gaining weight. For many around us, the workout is a journey from XXL to XL or Small to Medium. It’s high time to wipe out the body-shaming culture from the fitness industry.
Feed what your body needs, not what others want you to feed. When you let unwelcomed comments enter your head, somewhere you will lose the connection with your body. If you can do everything from running a marathon to domestic chores with full energy, then you are fit enough to live your life. Putting emotional and physical labour to save your body from judgemental eyes doesn’t make you fit. It will only ruin your health and peace of mind.
Work out or exercises should spread body positivity. It should help us embrace what we are and how we look. It should make us confident to look into the mirror with pride and confidence. Self-love makes you beautiful. If you look at yourself through other’s perceptions, you will miss out on the real beauty in you. Never do exercises or work out to fit into the fake beauty ideals. But do it to revitalize your body and mind and to live your life to the fullest on your terms.
