Hello beauties,
I hope you're all fabulous and enjoying the British
sunshine. Oh hang on, I forgot: it's not sunny anymore, is it? I've literally
lost the will to live with the British weather. After weeks of sweating like a
pig in a tropical heat, with no warning the weather reverts back to torrential
downpours and generally being miserable. And you know what that means? Leaving
the house in a crop top, pair of denim shorts and flip-flops, only to find it's
absolutely chucking it down. Nice. If you're reading this from an LA beach, I
am, to say the least, very jealous of you right now.
Anyway, back to the blog post in hand. Today I thought I'd
talk about body confidence because I think it's something we can all relate
too. As human beings, we know that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. But is
it just me or has the media come along with its cookie cutter and stamped out
one ingrained definition?
A decade ago, we would pick up a glossy magazine and the
front-cover would be plastered, festooned with images of these seemingly over
worldly women who had shining hair, flawless skin, washboard abs and the
tiniest waists. Either you would snatch it up, pay for the magazine and then
avidly read it cover to cover, trying to absorb every single beauty secret from
those gorgeous goddesses. Alternatively, you would place the magazine back on
the shelf and leave the shop, empty-handed.
Whilst myriads of magazines continue to print these
disingenuous fantasies, there now prevails a whole new can of worms which makes
avoiding images a near impossible feat. And that is the ubiquitous world of
social media.
Every day, our news feeds are inundated with a sporadic
barrage of digitally altered selfies. You'll just be there, blissfully
scrolling through your bestie's holiday selfies when BAM, a new photo pops up
of some reality star in a bikini, flaunting the flattest abs you've ever seen.
And just like that, you go from dreaming about the Spanish sun, Haagen-Dazs ice
cream and all-you-can-eat paella, to being gripped by sudden nausea.
Your mind starts racing. You're thinking 'when am I going
to go to the gym?', 'how am I ever going to be beach body ready in time?'. Subconsciously,
you start comparing yourself, doubting yourself, berating yourself 'why don't I
look like that?'.
For hours afterwards, that one image can dictate your mood
or dominate your outlook. And over time, frequent exposure to those dazzling
ideals can feed our insecurities, morph our body image and pretty much blind us
to our own beauty, making us despise what we see in the mirror.
Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation
between negative body image on social media to the development of reduced
self-esteem, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and a number of other mental
health conditions.
Growing up, I had very low body confidence and I feel the
media was a huge factor of that. I used to worry profusely about all sorts of
things, my skin and my weight in particular. Looking back, I can see now I was
worrying over nothing. In spite of my imperfections, I was then and still am
gorgeous. But unfortunately, our minds aren't always that rational and we can
end up being our own worst enemies.
When I talked about my struggles with body confidence, I think
a lot of people were quite shocked. As a girl with a visual impairment, many
assumed I would stop caring what I or anything around me looked like. People my
age would often say to me that I was lucky I couldn't see these images in the
media since that meant I wouldn't be affected by them. And I just think this
misconception about blind people not caring what they look like is just so
ridiculous and almost laughable. Whether you can see or not, it makes no
difference to how you dress or how superficial you are. I pride myself on how I
look and that's just the way I roll because I'm normal. Even though I cannot
see them, I still take loads of selfies of myself so of course I'm going to
feel the same pressure as everyone else on social media. Perhaps I'm not
affected by each individual image. Nonetheless, I can still visualise and
relate to the ideals that these images portray, the narrow principles of what
society considers to be beautiful.
Although I still worry from time to time about my body
image, I have learnt to love myself and embrace my flaws. It does take a while
to master the art of loving yourself, however with a few easy changes in your
daily lifestyle, you will be well on your way to the destination of self-love
and acceptance. Starting with social media.
Tune in tomorrow for part 2 of The Art to Learning to Love
Yourself, where I, your motivational coach, will enlighten you and help you
navigate your inner fabulousness. Oh dear, I'm beginning to sound like one of
those old, bearded, hippy dudes (how extraordinarily tragic of me). Anyhow,
tomorrow your carriage to body confidence awaits so be there or be square. Just
joking, obvs. If you're busy watching Made In Chelsea Croatia, then fair play
to you as that's precisely what I'll be doing. All the same, I would love it if
you tuned in. Have an amazing day and see you soon xx
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