Your body deserves love now
This month we have been focused on loving our bodies for all of the wonderful things they do for us, for the blessings that they are, and appreciating them just as they are TODAY, right now. Because they deserve love, they’re perfect just the way they are. This is a message that is so important to me as a woman and as a mother of three girls and three boys. There are so many body shaming messages out there and I want better for myself, for you, and for our kids. This has been the focus all month long and today I want to talk to you about how you can continue to love and appreciate your body, and we’re going to have a little bit of a paradigm shift.
This article and the video below are taken from the Stunning Style Weekly Style Snack! Join us Wednesdays at 1pm ET on the Stunning Style Facebook page or the FREE Capsule Wardrobes for Classic Style Facebook Group.
You’re a Flower, Didn’t You Know?
I’m a gardener, so I’m passionate about plants. There are so many beautiful flowers out there, I have a hard time choosing what goes in my garden! Each flower is so different, with a variety of petal shapes, colors, sizes, and density. And then there are stem heights, plant widths, foliage, texture, and so many other details that add to the unique beauty of each flower. Every flower is distinctive, beautiful, and brings something special to a garden.
Crocuses are some of the first to bloom and remind us that spring will actually happen this year, despite how cold and long the winter has been! Their brave little blooms poke up out of the melting snow and stand up fearlessly to a new onslaught of fresh powder. Tree blossoms shower us with petals every time the wind blows.
Tulips are tall and stately, daffodils are cheerful and bright, peonies are fragrant and full, anemones are petite and happy, forsythia is wild and vibrant. Hyacinths curl softly like ribbons. Sweet alyssum carpet your garden with vast bunches of tiny blooms. Even thistles, with their sharp stems and resilient natures, have beautiful blooms with vibrant color. I could go on and on about each and every flower and what makes it special, but we’d be here all day!
While a bouquet of roses is truly beautiful, a mixed bouquet is breathtaking. As humans, we crave variety, so in a mixed bouquet, each blossom brings unity, diversity, and charm, while the foliage supports, highlights, and frames the blossoms.
We are all flowers, with our unique body features, shapes, and sizes, and each one of us adds something beautiful and special to this garden we live in! Each of us is unique and beautiful like these flowers, and it’s time to start celebrating that!
Flowers are also unique not only in how they look, but in what they need to thrive. Some plants need the heat and moisture of tropical conditions while others hate to get their feet wet (sit in wet soil). If the soil, water, temperature, and alkalinity aren’t right, the flowers will not bloom, or they will wilt, possibly even die. Sometimes a flower can do ok in the wrong climate, but they certainly won’t be their most beautiful.
Dressing for your body shape is like planting a flower in the right conditions so you can bloom and look and feel your most beautiful.
Tools vs. Rules
Flowers need some TLC, and every good gardener has the right tools in her belt to care for her beloved plants so they look their most beautiful. We can use the body shape rules as tools to help our own bodies shine in their best light. Not every rule or tool is right for every body or every day. We get to choose which ones we use and when.
It’s important to remember that the use of these tools always comes from a place of caring for and loving the beautiful creation we are today, and not the one we were ten years ago or the one we might be in a year.
We are dressing the body you have TODAY. Right now. This body deserves to be loved, appreciated, and embraced. It’s beautiful, perfect, glorious, and we are going to shine a spotlight on all your best assets.
Let’s change our perspectives about our bodies to embrace and celebrate the beauty of each one of our lovely shapes, and the variety we each bring to this garden.
I know it can be a big mindset shift, and when I created the Style Your Silhouette courses, my primary goal was to bring positivity to this topic. In the body shape content that I’ve seen, it’s always been about what you should cover up or hide. That’s just not how I feel about this, and that feeds into the shaming mentality that there is something wrong with our bodies and there isn’t. There’s nothing wrong with our bodies. Dressing for your body shape is all about spotlighting your very best assets.
I’m not a mental health professional, and I can’t undo decades of body shaming and negative thoughts with the snap of my finger. But I can help you get started, and I hope that as we’ve been talking about this throughout the month that I’ve planted a seed in your mind, just like a gardener, that maybe your body is perfect right now. That maybe that thought can take root and start to grow. As the gardener, I hope to continue to nurture that seed – but I can’t do it alone. You have to help me and be the gardener too, and we can work together. In the Style Your Silhouette body shape courses we focus on that positivity while we learn how to spotlight your best assets. Changing how we talk and think about our bodies can make all the difference.
Thank you for joining me this month and for trying to love your body more and more. Surrounding yourself with others who are also embracing this body positivity mindset is the fertilizer that will let these seeds grow and grow. I hope you will join me and the hundreds of women who are part of this community.
1 thought on “How to See Your Body Shape in a New Light”
Lovely post. Thank you April.