I had chanced upon a video of young children being asked the question “What would they want to change about (in) their Body and the answers were incredible! One child said “unicorn horn” and another “polka dot skin”. I asked myself the same and my focus went on my my belly fat, and you also probably would place some insecurity because of social norms.

I grew up skinny. My hand would snap, that’s what my mom’s friend told her. Mom told me later about it.

Suddenly I realized (later – in my 20s), I grew to size 6 and then 8 and then in my 30’s to size 10. Fluctuated between 12 & 8 too in a short span. Had conversations like “ When I was thin”. Sometimes I also wondered what the size zero was all about. The fuss!

I am sucker for good fashion and loved to experiment with styles, always. Mostly loved what I wore and sometimes there were faux pas too.

I have oscillated between what perfect meant in the world and my love for my body.

A conversation with my best friend sparked this post idea. I have always picked up dresses which I liked and that I felt like wearing. I still do it.

My body size and shape has never been my clothing inspiration.

We spoke about an incident when as per the rule book, I shouldn’t have worn a Bandeau dress because i have pleasing curves ;-). Hell yeah!! I bought it, wore it, we partied and loved it.

Rule Breaker? No, I just wear what I want to!

All those style rules of no horizontal stripes if you are broad, fat arms and no sleeveless, no midis if you are short, polka dots are for the young, red is too bright for her/his personality, have never really applied to me. Infact, I mix and match to bring out the essence of a particular fabric or an attire. Have loved the art in itself. I think we should re-write these style rules. Its become outdated and are passé.

I have most of the times pushed my comfort zone and enjoyed the new look.

However, once in a while the need to be thin crops up. The need to be like that pin up model on my Instagram comes to my mind. Sometimes the pictures I take, I discard a  few as I think I look fat in them. Oh yeah it happens!! But the bigger picture is that I love my body, it’s about staying fit and strong and not about looking “perfect” as “perfect has no definition. It changes with the next advertisement on social media of brands.

The point I am making here is, the way you see yourself, the world sees you exactly the same way. It is about acceptance. Acceptance of one’s body. This is real!

What I am saying is..

Listen to your body and work on It the way you want to see it.

Listen to your body and work on it even if you want to be just like you are

Listen to your body and stop trying to fit in

Listen to your body and stop starving it in the name of dieting

Listen to your body, don’t be cruel. Stop hating it. Start loving it.

Listen to your body. Just listen!  

Self love and acceptance is a journey in itself. There is no wrong way to have a body!

P.S: if you have wanted to buy that pretty piece of bikini and fretting over your size, then I would ask you to push that comfort piece in your head. Go buy it and flaunt it. You love your body, you will love that bikini on your beautiful body.

Go explore girl!!

#bodypositivity #effyourbeautystandards

I don’t have pictures of that Bandeau black dress but here are some pictures of something similar.