My body and I were in a daily battle. I've never loved how it looked, and I've never liked what the mirror showed me. All of my photos would be taken using my phone camera and would always have a precise angle and lighting.
I had concerns about things that didn't exist in most cases. A mental health problem in which a person spends a lot of time obsessing on their body insecurities and has a distorted perception of how their body looks.
I was too afraid to look at myself from different angles and see how out of proportion my physique was. To see a bit extra meat dangling from my thighs or clothing that are a little too snug around my midsection. The phone camera is placed above the head to hide the double chin. Unattended hair strands on the face to obscure it in some way.
Then one day, I stopped putting a pillow in my lap to cover my tummy whenever I sat. In group shots, I stopped covering my arms behind others. To get rid of my double chin, I stopped gazing upward in every photo.
I no longer had to fight a body that was desperately attempting to keep me alive. Someone once told me that if I ask my body what it wants, it will respond that all it wants is to be accepted.
So I accepted it, with all the bulges, excess fat, tans, scars, and marks that came with it. It was mine, and no one else would ever adore it if I didn't.
I read somewhere that most people only notice your flaws that you point out to them. People see what you force them to see, what you put on a platter in front of them.
As a result, if I continued to talk about my fears, others would begin to perceive me as such.
So I came to a halt.
And I'd like you to come to a halt.
To feel beautiful, you don't have to be flawless. You don't have to be the most attractive person in the room to be loved.