To be comfortable in ones body seems like a privilege these days. There’s always something out there telling you you’re not good enough. Whether it be the numerous social media influencers advertising the latest weight loss pile of nonsense or your crush just flat out telling you you’re ugly. In a digital world where we can easily manipulate our bodies and flaunt it as fact it’s no wondering why teenage insecurity is at an all time high. I actually don’t have any stats to back that up but I’m sure it’s true. Actually the pandemic isn’t even limited to teenagers. You can feel insecure at any age no matter how privileged you are.
I seem to be exasperating topics that I have already covered. Oh well, I guess that says something about the world we live in. Society is getting worse and there is no escaping ourselves. Living a life where we are constantly monitoring and idealising people we have never even met and didn’t even know existed before social media is truly baffling.
But I just want to say to you, reading this. If you have ever felt insecure about yourself. If you have ever felt you weren’t good enough then that’s okay. If you don’t like your body, that is also okay. I am a firm believer in becoming the best version of ourselves. Whether that means hitting the gym constantly or achieving your body desires through more radical and unnatural means that is totally up to you. But also it’s not really vital to living a happy and fulfilling life in terms of self confidence and body positivity. Just learning to accept your body the way that it is is more than okay. We all come in different shapes and sizes. There isn’t a blueprint for the perfect body. We’re all just trying to figure that out.
And sure, people out there, whether it be indirectly, will tell you you need to change. But don’t let anyone make you feel bad for looking the way you do. But it is a bit of a weird concept. People do look at us more than we look at ourselves so maybe it does make sense to take on board others’ opinions. Or maybe you can say screw them and live the life you want to live. The way we look represents only a fraction of who we are on the inside. It’s all tangible, but our thoughts, our feelings, our actions. They can’t be defined by fat on our bellies or hair on our upper lip. Our bodies are on their own journey and sure we can slightly guide it but we can also just let it take it’s course.
It becomes very dangerous when we compare ourselves to unrealistic idealisms of other people. And a lot of the time we may not even know it’s happening, It’s great to have goals and we should work towards them but paying with your mental health is a very high price to and it is not worth it. But our romantic lives can be decided by a single swipe and positive reinforcement is as a simple as a double tap. But these are actions aren’t as powerful as someone telling you you’re beautiful or telling you how bomb you look in that outfit. It’s all just gestures and a sequence of 1s and 0s.
You’re not going to find any self esteem scrolling through an app. Maybe try looking in the mirror. Tell yourself you’re happy with who you are and just go out and be fabulous in your own skin. At the end of the day your body will eventually be dust.
Oh. that was grim…