Don't Just Accept Your Body... Embrace It

Man! Will there ever be a day when I look in the mirror and completely LOVE what I see? Most of us live in the future; looking forward to a better day when we are thinner, bustier & less-pimply. One day we'll get our acts together and finally be our ideal selves. But what if that day never comes? Are we going to be looking back at our lives, wishing we'd appreciated our young supple bodies when we had them? Are we going to moan about how we look until the day we die?

My grandma was complaining today about how much weight she's gained. She's going to my cousins' winging in Florida this week (he's becoming a Naval helicopter pilot) and we were trying on new outfits for her to wear on this trip. My mom and I thought she looked great but grandma kept staring at her tummy in their mirror — it was her main concern and nothing we said could change her perspective. I completely sympathize with how she feels but it made me realize that growing older is NOT the solution to self-esteem & body-image issues. You have to stare them in the face and take them down right now...regardless of what your age is. If you can't figure out how to be happy in the present, you'll never be happy in the future.



If I don't like something about myself I have two options:

A) Do something about it. Lose weight. Have a makeover. Go to the doctor. Whatever it takes. 

or

B) Embrace it. Don't just 'accept' it. Don't resign yourself to how you look. It's not just shrugging your shoulders and saying "Oh well, I'll live with it." Embracing how you look is empowering. It's a decision to focus on the positive.... what you like about your features, how they contribute to your life and make it better. Don't shrug it off, own it! It's easier said than done — it's a lifelong series of choices and actions — a journey of developing self-love. It may take a long time but that time is going to be passing you by anyway.

embrace (verb) hold someone (or something) in one's arms, esp. as a sign of affection