It will shock you to learn I didn’t always think being in front of a camera in nothing but my underwear and some sheer THING was a good time. In fact, there was a time I would have gladly chosen a root canal over showing ANYONE my belly.
So you might be asking yourself – WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED. And how do I do the same?! Right? Because no matter how much we criticize ourselves, hate ourselves, compare ourselves to other bodies, we can all agree THIS SHIT IS EXHAUSTING. It would be so nice not necessarily to LOVE ourselves but just for one dang second, to not obsess over our bodies. To feel utterly indifferent. (Huzzah welcome to body neutrality)
The truth is, my transformation took a bit of time. There was many things that helped, for example, unfollowing anyone who made me feel bad about myself on social media, or intentionally rejecting negative talk, unpacking my own internalized fat phobia and so on. But the BIGGEST contributor was being in photographs.
A sort of desensitization happens when you constantly take pictures of yourself. You start to see your thighs as just thighs, your big arms as just arms, your body as just a body. I’ve been taking portraits of myself for years now and I wouldn’t say I ALWAYS love my body and I ALWAYS have positive self talk – but MOST days, I do. Most days I revel in the abilities of my body, the way my soft arms fit perfectly around my loved ones, how my double chin emerges the moment someone makes me cackle with delight, how my thighs have absolutely no gap, which saved many a phones from falling in the toilet.
My body is just a body. It is my home. And I don’t have to love every part of it, I can be a work in progress. What I can’t do is spend even one more second of this rare fleeting life hating it.
So the next time you dream about a photoshoot for yourself and you stop yourself, thinking ahhh but I’m not quite there yet, remember, it’s the other way around. YOU DO THE SHOOT and LEARN within the shoot how to be okay. How to make a home. THEN, you go back to your life, liberated from a lifetime of hating yourself.
I WOULD LOVE to help you see just how beautiful and joyful it feels to LOVE the skin you live in. And if you’re scared, don’t worry. I do things scared ALL THE TIME. Do it scared. I promise you, it will change your life.
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