Body and My Image....

I work for a swimwear company, which will remain nameless. (Okay, it is Hapari and their new line coming out this week is amazing!) But I speak to so many women and I am privy to how they represent their bodies. They are hesitant and sometimes almost apologetic if they are erring on the fluffy side. And some feel a little braggadocio if they seem on the petite side. (Don't get me wrong, if I was an extra small or small I would shout my measurements to the world....or just face book them!) But our image seems to be based on those who we think have the better life. I personally love some of my fluff. (Not all of it by any means!) But my fluff represents that I have children. I have a soft doughy belly that is named after all 4 of my Chiclets. My thighs are thicker then they use to be but it also shows 24 years of blissful (we say blissful because it HAS lasted!) of marriage. I recall looking at a picture a couple of years after I was married. I was appalled at how I looked! I was so chubby and I hated it! Now I look back and see that I was thin as a rail and bony as all get out! I would kill anything or anyone for those thighs to be mine again. But my perceptive basically sucked then. We have sweet gals who call who have had double mastectomy and are trying to find something that works with their now different bodies. I love them because they remind me that the sagging breast are to be grateful for not to be wished upon for a different kind. Whatever our shell is be happy for it today. For it is merely a shell. It may represent our struggles, our failures, our addictions but it is by no means who we are. Go & do a little gratitude chant.....(mine will be "my body embodies all that I treasure!-NOW YOUR TURN!)