Let’s Change the Body Conversation

Want to get really in tune with the gloriousness that is your body?  Have it fall apart completely. Wake up one day and your legs work. Wake up another and they don’t. Same with your brain. Especially your brain. Have abilities. Lose abilities. Have abilities. Lose abilities. Have abilities. (Wanted to end that on an upswing!) Those able-bodied days become the biggest gifts from the universe. On a good day you could throw me in the most ridiculous, embarrassing outfit with dirty hair, no make-up and I would be raring to go anywhere in the world. Meet a celebrity. Sure. Run into an ex-boyfriend? Bring it on. Run…just run? Yes please! I could  care less about having the perfect appearance or the “perfect” body.  A perfect body to me is a healthy, happy body.

I do not exaggerate when I say that I now look at my legs with complete awe and wonder. They are beautiful and serve so many functions. One foot in front of the other without stumbling or tripping or swaying? You rock legs. You rock. I place my hands regularly on my belly and send it love – it is the core of my immune system running the entire show – it needs the love! You don’t ache every day anymore? You gorgeous, gorgeous untoned belly. Hips? They are gaining power. Their size? Don’t care. Are they helping me move? Excellent. The more function I get back in my arms, the more I celebrate. They have lost lots of muscle tone and I embrace the flabbiness of them. Flabby is fine. Flabby is beautiful. They are a work in progress. They move. They lift. They carry. They are amazing.

In this body journey, I have been constantly bombarded by media messages which pick apart women’s parts, a world in which no size or shape ever seems to be right and one’s body always seems to be elusively chasing a time when it will achieve perfection. Summer body. Bikini body. Before and after body. How about healthy body?  How about 365 days of the year awesome body? I want to bellow for the world to hear: None of this negative body talk matters!  And you know what? It really, really doesn’t.

So let’s continue to change the body conversation. Let’s love ourselves today – not tomorrow or next week or next year. If you have made health and fitness changes, if you’ve lost weight, let’s not disrespect the beautiful body that carried you to today, that is a vital and wonderful part of your life journey. If you’ve gained weight, honour and truly love your present self and future self and not look constantly to your “before” self. Same amazing body your entire life – just a different form. Different forms of totally amazeballs you. Most importantly, let’s change the body conversation for the next generation. Let’s enable little girls to grow up knowing their bodies rock, that their body parts and quirks and differences are beautiful, that diversity is amazing…let them emulate our Body Rock philosophy knowing it is the norm and not the exception. Let’s have them grow up thinking having a “summer body” or “bikini body” are the most ridiculous phrases they’ve ever heard.

Please share this graphic and help change the conversation. #rockyourbody