Don’t wait until your body is fighting for you to appreciate it. I use to nit-pick my body whenever I could. If only I didn’t have back fat, if only my arms were more toned, if only my belly was flatter. If only, if only.
It took my body being put through the ringer and fighting to live that I was able to see the disrespect I had given my body. If anyone talked about any of my dear friends’ bodies the way I talked about my own body I would give them a piece of my mind. So why was it OK for me to do it to myself?
It’s funny. The respect I now have for my body I wish I always had. The fact that I was able to say disrespectful things about it and it still fight for me. For it to maintain strength when I was so weak, for it to fight through the pain in order for me to still be here. And not only that to be recovering so nicely after all that it had been put through! My body did that. My disrespected body did that. I wonder would it have done even better had I given it the respect it deserved.
Now it’s very hard for me to find fault. I’m no longer blaming my body if something doesn’t fit me the way I wanted. I’ve been saying, well this piece of clothing wasn’t created with your body in mind, no big deal. Let’s find something that was. My body is not the problem anymore.
Don't get me wrong. I don’t think that doing this will rid our bodies of sicknesses and diseases. We’ll get sick whether we love our bodies or not. It’s just a part of life. I am just really aware now that if the society we live in does not consider me the standard of beauty, it is up to me to find me beautiful. It is my responsibility to call me beautiful. How can I expect anyone to find me beautiful if I can’t admit it to myself?
Don’t wait until your body is fighting for you. Love it right now. Not because you think you’re the most perfect thing in the entire world but because you’ve decided to find your “imperfections” beautiful. Because it’s your job, your responsibility to feed positive things about yourself to yourself. Because it is knowing if you don’t you shouldn’t expect anyone else to.
Also it doesn’t hurt to look in the mirror and be like, damn, I look good.
Doesn’t hurt to say it and actually believe it because guess what? You do.
It took my body being put through the ringer and fighting to live that I was able to see the disrespect I had given my body. If anyone talked about any of my dear friends’ bodies the way I talked about my own body I would give them a piece of my mind. So why was it OK for me to do it to myself?
It’s funny. The respect I now have for my body I wish I always had. The fact that I was able to say disrespectful things about it and it still fight for me. For it to maintain strength when I was so weak, for it to fight through the pain in order for me to still be here. And not only that to be recovering so nicely after all that it had been put through! My body did that. My disrespected body did that. I wonder would it have done even better had I given it the respect it deserved.
Now it’s very hard for me to find fault. I’m no longer blaming my body if something doesn’t fit me the way I wanted. I’ve been saying, well this piece of clothing wasn’t created with your body in mind, no big deal. Let’s find something that was. My body is not the problem anymore.
Don't get me wrong. I don’t think that doing this will rid our bodies of sicknesses and diseases. We’ll get sick whether we love our bodies or not. It’s just a part of life. I am just really aware now that if the society we live in does not consider me the standard of beauty, it is up to me to find me beautiful. It is my responsibility to call me beautiful. How can I expect anyone to find me beautiful if I can’t admit it to myself?
Don’t wait until your body is fighting for you. Love it right now. Not because you think you’re the most perfect thing in the entire world but because you’ve decided to find your “imperfections” beautiful. Because it’s your job, your responsibility to feed positive things about yourself to yourself. Because it is knowing if you don’t you shouldn’t expect anyone else to.
Also it doesn’t hurt to look in the mirror and be like, damn, I look good.
Doesn’t hurt to say it and actually believe it because guess what? You do.
I love this. I made a decision recently to start looking at and appreciating my body. It is a gift from God. I am making healthier choices but am not killing myself to look a certain way.
ReplyDeleteThis post came at the right time for me! Thank you! :-D
Yes definitely at the right time..feeling good about one's self is pivotal and yes you are accurate in saying some of the things I say about my body wouldn't tolerate them being said to anyone or about anyone
ReplyDeletePerfectly written!
ReplyDeleteIt's taken me most of my life to finally figure out my body is pretty amazing, and has done so much for me, even though I haven't always been the best to it. It's always a work in progress to love my body more, but I'm way ahead of where I used to be, and I'm so glad you're in the same boat!
You couldn't have written this better, you hit the nail on its head. Its only when i feel sick that i remember how great my body is and don't appreciate it until it doesn't function as it should.
ReplyDeleteWow that's quite some insight. I'm slowly coming around to how you're respecting and loving your body. I think I had been cursing mine for awhile, but now that I've had surgery and my body IS healing itself from that, I can see how profoundly awesome the human body can be. Thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDelete:) oh and PS I'm
ReplyDeleteCatching up on my reading this morning so that's why im blowing your notifications up hahahahaha