Body image and positivity

 

Body image and what we should look like haunt most people. Those with physical body changes , more so. Why should we worry if our bum looks big in something or if our features don’t conform to scientific studies of what beauty is? so what if we lost a limb or our hair? so what if we have a stoma…

As you can probably see from my posts, I am an open person when it comes to my stoma, but believe me, I have many hang ups about my body. I could write a fairly substantial list about what I don’t like, but for the most part, it doesn’t include my stoma. It’s things like, my ( slightly) large nose and lack of a great jawline, but really, why? why do I feel like that? because I know it isn’t perfect so therefore I don’t like it. What is perfection? well science has decided it is certain criteria and measurements that are deemed attractive, but if that were true why are we all different? and why do we find different people attractive than others? therefore science is not right. It has a lot more to do with the person we are, and how we carry ourselves than what we actually look like.

I happen to come across a really great programme called Naked Beach

The concept is quite scary to even the most body positive of people but it really shows you that in the end no one really cares what you look like. Three contestants who are very insecure about their bodies go to a private villa in Greece where a number of body positive people are there in the nude ( initially with body paint and knickers) and they help the three overcome their hang ups, and at the end they have to join the team and go naked. It really seems to work because the team that are there to help have all sorts of shapes and sizes, including Dan who had to have his arm and shoulder amputated. After watching it I felt sure I would have gone there and stripped right off and gone skinny dipping in the sea too.

I love the photo shoots from #GetYourBellyOut and Purple wings charity too, they really show that we are not really different from anybody else, we are just as gorgeous. The more we show that we don’t mind having our bottoms on our tummies then the more it becomes accepted as just one of those things like a broken leg, and nothing to stare at on the beach.

( photo Purple wings photoshoot, permission granted for this blog)

I am no spring chicken but have decided that I am comfortable with my body enough to wear clothes I like whether they are tight fitting or not. I will wear bikinis with my stoma bag on show on a crowded beach, why shouldn’t I? I realise that if you are not confident then you will think that everyone is looking at you and whispering under their breath. But maybe, just maybe they are thinking how good you look, how confident you are even with a stoma ( or other difference). If you speak to everyone you know, I can almost guarantee that there will be something they don’t like about their bodies, so that must be true about all those folk you think are staring at you.

I say embrace your body and it’s differences and don’t let me be the only one with a stoma and a bikini on that beach.

Oh, and watch  naked beach  

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

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