Thursday 13 September 2007

To be or not to be Body Conscious

From a young age I have been a plus size and at times I have been extremely unhappy with my body, blaming it for failings in other areas of my life.

All of my friends were thin and seemingly happy. It was not until recently I realised that many of them were much more unhappy with their lot than I. A few members of my extended group of girl friends have now opted for surgery, a fourth, one of my best friends has real issues with the size of her breasts and there is no doubt that at some point she will follow suit. Are they happier? Maybe, maybe not - the reasons behind their feelings of inadequacy are there's to come to terms with but it goes to show that insecurities, justified or not, are part of everyone's lives, regardless of how good they actually look.

Now I know this happens daily throughout the world, but for me it was a huge eye opener. To see women that I have compared myself to over the years, and mostly found myself lacking, are so conscious of their flaws that they are willing to do something I would never do empowered me.

With age I am learning to love my larger frame and not blame everything bad that happens to me on my weight. There are things I would like changed but not so desperately that I would spend a fortune on potentially harmful cosmetic surgery. With the increasing choice of plus size clothes on the market I have come to love shopping for the right outfit and have become much more adventurous with what I wear. You can diet, or change your look in other more drastic ways, but if you can't accept who you are then you will never be truly happy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your lovely post. I spent my teens being ashamed of my tiny breasts (I wore girl's sizes in shirts until well into my 20's) and thin hips. I definitely felt as though I was missing out on being a "grown-up" woman. Everyone else assumed that I was happy with how I looked, but I was miserable.

I've since learned that almost all women are far too hard on themselves with respect to their appearance.