Body Confidence

It has only took me eighteen years to figure it out but we're here now! I think that body confidence is an issue for everybody, no one thinks that their body is perfect, but there's a difference between people who constantly put their bodies down and people who accept their bodies for how they are.

I have always been in the first group until recently when I have just realised that it doesn't matter how my body looks - I want to enjoy the really good moments, visit new places and feel happy. In past years, I was constantly thinking in the back of my mind that I wasn't going to look good in holiday photos, that I needed to cake my face in makeup because everyone would notice my 'flaws', and that I had to control my eating before and after a big meal. Of course I get into that head space sometimes even now, but I am much more relaxed in how I treat myself. The difference is that now I look back on even the awkward or bad photos and just remember how I felt in that moment, I only put makeup on because I enjoy experimenting with colour or just want to dress up, I enjoy what I am eating in the moment and I don't worry as much about how much food I should eat afterwards.

Yes, I do have times where I do have a lack of self-image but it's important to remember to move on because there are better things to focus on than appearance. Body confidence doesn't mean that you don't want to improve your health or your body; it means that you are comfortable in your own skin at whatever state it's in. Neither does it mean there are never days where you feel insecure, it happens.

I will always dislike what I think personally are my imperfections: my face, spots, my nose, my eyebrows; my stomach and thighs; even my boobs, there was actually a time when I would buy bras and convince myself that I had bigger boobs than I really do have! It sounds stupid when I think about it now, but people only think like this if they have been convinced that there is such thing as imperfection. Beauty has nothing to do with imperfection, beauty knows no flaws because beauty only sees the positive.

Here are some quotes from two of my favourite actresses, who know a little thing or two about beauty and body confidence:

"I hope that my presence on your screen and my face in magazines may lead you, young girls, on a beautiful journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty, but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside." - Lupita Nyong'o

"Beauty is the face of who cried and now smiles, beauty is the face of who cried and now smiles, beauty is the scar on your knee since you fell when you were a kid, beauty is the circles when love doesn't let you sleep, beauty is the expression on the face when the alarm rings in the morning, it's the melted makeup when you have a shower, it's the laughter when you make a joke you're the only one who can understand. Beauty is meeting his gaze when you see him, it's when you cry for all your paranoia's, beauty is the lines marked by time.

Beauty is what we feel in the inside which also shows outside us. Beauty is what we feel on the inside which also shows outside us. Beauty is the marks that life leaves on us, all the kicks and he caresses the memories leave us. Beauty is letting yourself live." - Emma Watson

I know that body confidence is deeper than just appearances, believe me, I know. It involves many influences over the years regarding cultural and personal views on beauty. Sometimes, it can be a mental state that we are in (been there) that leads to us doubting everything about ourselves, including body image. Please listen to people like me who drone on about having confidence in our bodies - I hope that one day all of you will feel comfortable in your own skin. Xx