Body image & how we see beauty

Many people struggles from negative body image of themselves, and everyone has their own insecurities. We all do! because we care about how we look especially how others see us. Which is a good thing! we do not want everyone walking around in their PJs wherever they go and not bothered to brush their teeth when they wake up in the morning. And everyone appreciates beauty, so being self cautious of our appearance is normal. However, we also have the tendency to compare ourselves with others and this is when negative body image of own selves takes over our self esteem and it can be dangerous. It can cause self hatred, depression and sometimes, even suicide.

Males or females can develop negative body image, because regardless of our gender we care about how we look. I do not mean to blame the media for this, but I do believe that what is portrayed in the media does affect the idea of beauty to our society. I have grown up comparing myself with the images of models and movie stars on television, magazine etc. They were all picture perfect with beautiful skin and toned body and I was self hating myself thinking, I can never look as attractive. Over the years I have finally grown to love my self, and I am proud and comfortable with my own body image. I know that I can not look like the celebrities, models and athletes on TV, but I am attractive in  my own unique way.

There are THREE things about our body image that we should be aware of;

ONE: How we look?
When we look in the mirror, we see our body (shape, size, height etc). And what we see is our image, it is just that simple. However, others may not see us the same way we see ourselves. One might think that he/she is too tall but from a taller person point of view, he/she may be just at a normal height. But it is what it is, and the body we see in the mirror is our body, the one we grow up with, the one we are in, and the one we are growing old with.

TWO: How you feel about your body?
Chances are if you feel good about your body (weight, size, height etc), you will be more confident. So feeling good in your own body is very important because the way you feel about your body will develop a sense of either positive body image or negative body image of yourselves.

THREE: How do you control your body?
It is very important to understand that we are in control of our own body (what we eat, what we do etc). Instead of focusing only on the picture image of us, we also have other individual criteria of our body to focus on. For example, we can be graceful with the way we talk, or spirited with the way we walk, or other criteria that make us unique as an individual. And these criteria will make us different and attractive.

While we might be too caught up uploading our bestest selfies on social media, we tend to forget that it is just a virtual world. We live in a world where social interaction stays online and we surrender to that. To love our unique selves maybe we should get to know ourselves better. We sure do have our own attraction and one should not just "judge a book by it's cover", because we might misjudge and missing out on getting to know some of the most great people.

I am advocating for a positive self image. Because if we are happy with our body, we will not need anyone's validation on our being. I wish the world would appreciate more face to face social interaction because we could learn a lot from one another.

And a reminder to myself, those images I am seeing on the media, they could be photoshopped. And I certainly do not want to  compare myself with a made believe image. So I will keep my hips and thighs just the way they are.

I also think that everyone should read this beautiful article: http://thegrio.com/2015/06/25/living-beautifully-with-vitiligo/

Say something nice and mean it! Shall we?

To advocate for positive energy and optimism, let us start with ourselves. Here are 20 things we should say more often.