It is a challenge to remain content about our physical states because we are often bombarded with photoshopped images of what we are influenced to look like. When, the people who are photoshopped don’t even look like that. So, how can we expect the same in reality?

After years of forcing my body to be something else and needing to conform my body into a figment of my imagination, I have made peace with my body. For me, health is number one. Everything else, like how it looks is a byproduct. My body’s function is primary. There are so many great things happening in my body and I want to honour and accept that.

Here are 12 things that I have accepted and learnt about my body:

1. My curves are precious.

2. After I eat, I won’t have a flat tummy.

3. The feeling of being healthy beats being skinny and unhealthy.

4. Feeling strong is powerful.

5. Confirming to what other people think of my body is not being true.

6. I have only one body, I need to treat it with respect.

7. My body is doing so much for me; I want to honour and respect that.

8. I have big thighs and a big butt. They serve a function, to hopefully bring life into This World.

9. I probably won’t be a size zero again, and I don’t want to be.

10. My body is a gift and I want to treat it as such.

11. Every scar, stretch mark, cellulite, tattoo, wrinkle, freckle and blemish tells a story of the journey of my body. I am grateful to still be alive and healthy.

12. If I let other people tell me what my body will look like, I will be headed down a path of unhappiness, dis-ease, not being present and unfulfillment.