Be Body Kind. Body Positive.

Talking negatively about the way we look and feel in our bodies has become ingrained into human nature. ‘I can’t fit into my jeans anymore’, ‘I should drop a pound or two’, ‘Why is my skin so shitty?’. We are constantly slating ourselves for the way we look and never giving any credit to the parts of our body which we do like. We have become our own biggest critics; incessantly comparing ourselves to others and wishing we could be someone other than who we are. We don’t give ourselves the time of day to focus on the truly brilliant traits that make us who we are. Whether you’re clever, funny, athletic, artistic, musical.

In fact, I don’t think you know actually how amazing you are. As Bryony Gordon explained in her book ‘You got this’, the fact that you are here, on this Earth, is absolutely incredible. If your mum and dad had never met; if one of them happened to arrive late to a work-doo or event where they first met, you simply would not be here. If your parents decided to, you know, get frisky, a few days or even hours before, you would be a completely different version of yourself. So, the fact that you are here, living as you are, is pure magic. You are an absolute one and only.

Therefore, you should treat yourself with nothing but love and respect. You do not deserve to damage your body by constantly bitching about it. Restricting it of food. Nit-picking at it and wishing that you could change things about yourself. You shouldn’t worry about whether your lips are too thin or your waist to wide, because to be honest, you are the only person who cares about it. Your family and friends simply don’t care whether you’re tall or short, have long legs or short legs. They love you for who YOU are. Your personality. Your laugh. Your smile. All that other stuff is completely irrelevant to them. Realistically, no one will be crying at your funeral because they miss your ‘perfect’ nose or ‘perfect’ legs, they will be crying over all the memories they shared with you. (I am putting perfect in apostrophes as nothing is perfect.) You should love your body for exactly as it is because, as cliché as it sounds, there is only one of you. Unique, wonderful, you.

So instead of wasting your time, thinking about all the ways that you should change yourself, think about all the possible ways that you can grow yourself. Grow your experiences. Whether that’s contacting a friend you haven’t seen in a while, going to a festival or learning something new. There are so many better ways of using your time than thinking about something as silly as body size. Because you deserve for your life to be full of amazing adventures and memories. And those experiences should not be stolen from you just because you are worrying about other, insignificant, things. You deserve a life free from self-criticism and hatred. Your body is so miraculous. Nourish it. Cherish it. Be friends with it.

Because put simply, you do not owe the world anything other than to be yourself.