An Honest Conversation

The other day I was looking through pictures and saw a pair of thin and attractive legs. I thought to myself how much I wanted those legs. I thought about all the flaws my body has and struggled to rid myself of these thoughts. Each new image of yet another thing wrong with my physical appearance flew at me before I flipped to the next picture and realized those legs were my own in the picture.

I was shocked and physically ill. How screwed up is my body image? I do non profit work to combat these issues but that doesn't mean that I'm immune to poor body image. Doing yoga and meditation has helped my body image but after my mistaken "legs" incident, I realized something. The way I view my body is just inaccurate. What I see in the mirror is not reliable. I love being healthy and feeling stronger but I don't enjoy picking my body apart. I also don't like how easily it happens. Some days are great and other days I criticize myself so much that I begin to bate my body. The key is that I am learning tools to lessen this hatred and call bullshit on societal expectations. Let's be clear that there's nothing wrong with exercise and healthy eating but there IS something wrong with doing it to fit a narrow box of what society says women need to be.

Our society puts so much pressure on girls/women and I could lie and say that I have conquered body issues. But clearly I haven't. The more honest I am, the more honest other young women can be with me during my non profit work. The answer is never covering it up in my opinion. I want other women to feel safe opening up to other women about this. Instead of judgement, let's offer understanding and acceptance. Let's start an honest conversation with our mothers, daughters, friends, sisters, and men in our lives. Let's bring the safe space out of the classroom, living room, or women's center, and into the public sphere.