Health Is Personal

Your body is your home for life, let's take care of it. Let's work on accepting all bodies. 

Our society has ingrained in us, ideas and beliefs surrounding image and aesthetic, instant judgement or assumptions about others as a response to how they look, rather than accepting that humans come in all shapes and sizes. I think it's important to know that everyone's version of 'health' looks different, despite our base bodily functions being the same, where we are and what we look like when our bodies are happy and functioning adequately can be very different.  

By this, I mean internally, the things you cannot see. Our organs, arteries, hearts, lungs, bones, the female menstruation cycle and everything in between. It's not one size fits all, and thank goodness it isn't... how boring would that be! There are extremities that can be reached to shift ourselves of course, whether that we restricting or over consumption that can result in under nourishment and comments of being 'too skinny', or indulging resulting in assumptions of 'laziness' or being 'too big'. The truth is, we can all push our bodies to an unhealthy point, either end of the spectrum- it's about acknowledging and accepting where your own body is happy and healthy, wherever that is and whatever that looks like, making conscious choices to look after yourself mentally and physically, rather than trying to fit a 'mould' and try and 'change' your body unnecessarily. Our body is just a vessel to carry us round and rather than be nasty towards it or fight to change it, lets use scientific research and knowledge to enhance our freedom and acceptance to live healthily physically and mentally. Conscious choices and awareness, rather than restriction or obsession. 

We have to work on accepting all body types. No matter what shape or build you have, we all have rolls and creases when we bend, sit and move, that’s our skin being malleable and allowing us to do so, it’s not a reflection on your worth, but keeping you alive. I feel we are all so tentative to show any form of body appreciation because our own minds inform us that we shouldn’t and we fear the voices of others. If you are in a larger body and show any form of acceptance, you are often hit straight back with society’s opinion that you need to lose weight and if you’re naturally a smaller build you are told it’s easier for you to be confident, that you should gain some weight or that because you were born with a smaller frame that your acceptance of oneself isn’t as important as those who struggle with larger bodies.  

It’s difficult because our society makes it that way, informs you that you could always be more, change or do better, nothing is ever enough and because of that we fail to see the worth in what is and we are targeted whenever we try. That’s why self-acceptance is so important for everyone and anyone, no shape is the ‘lucky’, ‘perfect’ or ‘right’ one and no shape means no personal struggle, but some bodies are marginalised and targeted more than others. That’s why we have to work on reminding ourselves that we are all blessed to be alive and live in whatever body we are in, love ourselves no matter what that may be. We all need a certain amount of body fat to function and protect our vital organs, a ‘flat stomach’ or ‘no fat’ that we find ourselves chasing is not realistic, however we are built there is a healthy happy version and we should allow ourselves to access that. If we are able to feed each other’s insecurities so well, we can easily feed securities and focus the energy on the flip side, lift each other despite looks.  

Of course pushing ourselves too far can have drastic effects on both physical and mental health, none of us are naïve to that. We can become exposed to extreme cases and may require support due to neglecting health, our insides can become effected or harmed. But we are able to make informed choices to support our well-being as we are, without unhelpful pressure regarding how we should be. Judgement doesn’t have to be part of how we function, we don’t have to place others in boxes or assume when actually another may be very healthy on the inside but judged on the outside, they just differ from societies ‘ideal’.  

Body shape, body fat and weight are not the only markers for ‘health’, a healthy mind and body isn’t just a healthy weight, particularly the weight that we may feel we ‘have’ to be rather than where we function and live happily. Health is personal. It’s about what’s on the inside. We can make informed choices to prioritise our well-being without them impacting our value or pressurising unnecessarily. Not focusing on external looks but our insides, functioning at our personal optimum in order to care for ourselves. We cannot be expected to love our bodies all the time, it's human and natural to acknowledge flaws or things we would preferably change, but we can always accept them and look after them regardless of the days or moments we zoom into what we don't like about ourselves. We can spend less time looking in the mirror or comparing, and more time looking around. We can choose to take care of our bodies and minds.