body messages

I used to feel so self conscious about my body that I stopped wearing my bikinis. Over the years, I had internalized so many messages about my own body and messages about what women's bodies are "supposed" to look like.

It was my daughter who made the biggest impact and helped me shift my thinking. She was 7 at the time.
We were getting ready to go to the pool.

I was standing in my closet looking at myself in a bikini, replaying a phrase someone had said to me several years prior ("I don't think you're quite bikini ready").

I was just getting ready to change out of my bikini into my one-piece and my daughter came bursting in and said, "mommy you look so pretty in your swimsuit!"

How could I change my suit after that?

That moment touched my heart in so many ways and was instrumental in helping me heal years of body image issues.
I want to model body confidence for her. She'll get enough messaging from other people about her body in the coming years and I want to support her in feeling good about her body, no matter its shape or size.

My goal is to teach her some basic principles... *Take care of your body... nourish it with healthy foods, exercise, rest.
*Love yourself. Love your body. Don't let other people tell you what beauty is or what you have to do to be "beautiful." We don't need to "fix" ourselves to meet other people's beauty standards.
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*Radiate your inner beauty, your uniqueness, and your gifts. That's what really makes us all beautiful humans anyway.