You

So you’re trying to love yourself, right? You’re trying to accept what your body looks like and find it beautiful, right?

And most of the time you don’t get anywhere near that, do you?

Sometimes I really like my body. Sometimes I really don’t. I’ve never, ever felt like the magazines say I should: perfectly happy and comfortable in my own skin. I still haven’t fully accepted myself.

But you know what? That’s ok. I need to focus on balance, not on perfection. And this means I’ll still struggle and fail. But maybe I can find a way to struggle less and fail even less than that.

Maybe I can start to notice my body as one connected entity, instead of broken up parts that I judge individually. I can look at my stomach that’s sometimes flat and sometimes round, and see how it flows down into my legs – strong legs that flow into my feet, which keep me from falling down (most of the time, anyways).

There’s a whole body here, for Christ’s sake! A connected, living, breathing thing. It keeps me alive. It protects me. It makes sure I get what I need.

Maybe sometimes I need to exercise more. Maybe I’ve reached an imbalance and my body feels it.

Or maybe sometimes I need to eat more. Maybe I’ve reached an imbalance and my body feels it.

Perfection will not happen. Give that part up.

But what can happen is balance. Acceptance on most days. Peace more often than not.

Maybe you wake up on one day, and your skin isn’t doing what you want it to. Or your extra curves, which you were particularly accepting of yesterday, feel really unpleasant today. Or you can’t find it within yourself to love your bony frame.

But instead of being stuck there, focus on one thing that makes you happy when you wear it. Your earrings, your t-shirt with your favorite quote, you bathrobe that feels so soft on your skin. Then look into your eyes, where YOU are. Thank your imperfect body for being there for you (even when it can’t be there 100%, which happens sometimes for healthy people, and a lot of times for sick people).

And go out and experience life with your messy yet amazing body.

Go out feeling slightly dissatisfied, and do your thing anyways. Sing your songs, see the world, drink your tea; hell, photograph that imperfect body and then see what is beautiful – because I promise you there’s beauty there in the imperfection.

Take it a day at a time.

Culture can be stupid sometimes. It can make you believe fairy tales, and then those fairy tales become your biggest nightmare. So just tell the world to shut up more often. When it tells you something about how your body should look (and believe me, it’ll try), just turn away from it and face a new direction.

You may have to do this a lot, but that’s ok. Gnats are persistent but it doesn’t mean we should stop and pay attention to them.

Think through what your body has done for you, and what it will do for you till the very end.

And here’s something to remember: it’s YOU. There’s YOU in the midst of all of it.

YOU.