Day 7: The Simplest Way To Overcome Your Negative Body Image
Follow along my Ship 30 for 30 journey as I learn what it means to be a writer in this digital age.
Everyone struggles with body image.
We are continuously fed with thoughts, words and actions that a particular type of body gets to have the cake and eat it too.
Personally, I struggled with my body image for years.
PCOS, and the weight gain that came with it, made this fight a hard one. For the past 15 years, I have been told, and I have internalised, that the way my body looks is wrong.
But what changed was the realisation that I was indulging in negative self-talk. As soon as that clicked, I understood I was adding fuel to the fire by not being self-compassionate. I was being my worst enemy.
Here's what I should have done instead:
I should have first learned to love my body and then tried to heal it.
Earlier, I used to workout (and dreaded every second of it) because I hated how my body looked. Now I workout because I love my body and know what’s right for it.
When you hate something, you don’t want to spend a minute on it. But when you love something, you can cherish the time you spend together. Now I look forward to swinging my dumbbells and seeing my body strengthen.
Accepting and loving how I look made it easier for me to help it heal. There is no way around it.
