I went through a journey of self-love. It was a twisted and weird road to a medical emergency and ended with finding out that loving myself is much better.

I was told, “You should gain, you’re too skinny.”

I began wearing oversized t-shirts and baggy pants just to make me feel better about myself. I struggled to gain weight. I ate more than five meals a day. Eventually, I learned that the best thing you can do to find self-love is simply choose yourself. Body positivity is as simple as making the choice to love yourself despite shortcomings. It is to embrace your whole self and not let others dictate how you should feel about your body.

You have to stand up and say, “There’s nothing wrong with me, my shape or who I am. You’re the one with the problem.”

Loving your body is about being comfortable in your own body and only you get to set the parameters of that. You get to decide what that looks like and only you know where the finish line is. Never let anybody make you feel ashamed of your body, it’s yours and yours only.

Be comfortable with your body. What are you going to do? Starve yourself every single day to make other people happy? That’s dumb. Stop trying to fix your body, it was never broken. To be beautiful means to be yourself, you don’t need to be accepted by others. To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven.

You are not a mistake. You are not a problem to be solved, but you won’t discover that until you are willing to stop banging yourself on the wall of shaming and caging and fearing yourself. You are beautiful. Love yourself.

***

Tell us: What did you think of this piece?