Mirror… Mirror

A huge topic that I would like to bring up and get out there is about “Body image“. It’s something that hits home HARD as well as an issue, per say, I know bothers many. Why are always so consumed of our body and how our body is to be viewed? Why do we care so much? When I try to think back to when I started really caring, I was a young teenager who became so insecure about her thighs… Huge thighs… It is funny to think about because why does it matter the thickness or even thinness of someone’s body parts? I remember I couldn’t stand it. No one really ever made you feel like you needed this insecurity or even helped you overcome this. At the time, it seemed like you were put in this category but really who cares. Why do we need to strive to have this supermodel figure? Does it go back to Barbie’s figure which us girls played with and thought was the normal way to look? Thin long legs, flat abs, perfect chest with these long arms… Do we get our prince charming once we look like this? It’s insane to think about but we honestly grew up watching this “perfect” shape prance around our world from TV to magazines to even our toys. I know personally, my body issues stem from believing this is the way to look. I grew up also constantly hearing body comments from all corners of my life so it is and will also be a challenge. It’s sickening to really think you can be disgusted with your own body part(s). Now I have been seeing way more motivational social media posts trying to help girls AND woman love their bodies. We truly should. It’s hard and I will always work on it but I strongly dislike, not liking myself.

An experience that kind of blew up my world was after having my son. My body, as every mother’s body changed, I couldn’t take it. It brought me into a hard depression that I was so ashamed to speak up. I am holding this newborn in my arms, looking down smiling but then catching a glimpse of this skin surrounding my arms as I sat there. I cried many times over. As there are many blessing of social media, I found this to be my pitfall. Scrolling through on those early mornings, I am looking at these photos of friends or strangers who recently had a baby and look amazing like they never gave birth or were even pregnant… These horrible thoughts raced through my mind and I struggled. Why can’t I look like this? What is wrong with me? My husband would try extremely hard to comfort me but I couldn’t listen as I was staring at this woman who I couldn’t accept was me. Why can’t I be happy, love this new me and appreciate this all? I didn’t want anyone to see my body ever. Felt like a tsunami hit my soul. Having insecurities throughout my life did not compare to this. Until a shift occurred as if the universe was giving me a wake up, I started to adjust and take a step back which did take very long time, I knew it was important. In reality, why did it matter what my body looks like to others or why do I need to look like I never had a baby? I did and my body changed so why did I need to struggle this hard? I am starting to appreciate my body, this body that gave birth, the body that carried me through MY life. I need to take care and love it. This road to “recovery” is far from easy but it is a necessity. We need to do better in all aspects that are in our control. I want to be able to raise my kids without any thought of insecurities (to the best of my ability – of course) so they never think a part of their body is a flaw.

Again growing up for me was TV, magazines and toys, now kids have access to social medial at a young age. I cannot IMAGINE how that plays a part on these poor little minds. We need to do better to halt what is out there to a degree or continue to bring more positivity to posts. Even though there is a very dark hole to social media, there are many extraordinary opportunities. People can connect so much faster, see their interests like photography or travel at the tip of their finger tips AND palm of their hands. I was recently provided a Instagram page of a woman who wants to promote and support the post baby bod and I think this is so incredibly beautiful. There are such great opportunities out there that can overcome these clouds that we create… We just need to see them!

We are all beautiful work in progresses.