Overcoming body-criticism

As a once-upon-a-time overweight kid, I have always been obsessed with the measuring scale and its verdict. I have the fortune of knowing men and women in my friends and family circle who are not as obsessed  but they are body-conscious to some degree. I cannot recall meeting a person who is a 100% in love with their body and that’s quite tragic if you think about it because I was born a while ago.

Body-conscious for me means being unhappy with the way your body looks hence making you either critical or less confident about your body. I wonder if women are more affected by it than men.  As a stylist, I work with women across age, race and backgrounds and I witness aggressive self-criticism and body-consciousness. Even though I confidently encourage these women to not hate their arms or their hips, I often wonder would I be able to like my body as much had I weighed a 10 kilos more. If I could, I can happily acclaim I am a 100% body-positive. Until then, I aim to grow to love myself as I am, overweight or skinny or inbetween. “To love yourself as you are”- is my definition of body-positivity. In this journey of uplifting women and their self-confidence, I aspire to reach this personal goal of mine someday.

I plan to continue this discussion on body-positivity and how we can encourage women to transform their self-loathing to self-love by posting several objections that I face while styling women. Body-consciousness is a result of decades of conditioning by our family and the external environment which cannot be reversed by one person or comment. However, I would like to believe that changes start from now. I would love to hear how you would overcome those objections and build confidence. Watch this space for more.

Trousers and top from Target. Trouser linked here and similar top here.