I am not my body. I have a body.

Let me tell you a story about a girl.

A kind hearted, hot-headed funny girl. She was popular, liked by many, but envied, therefore resisted by some. She was very confident or at least that’s what everyone thought.

No-body knew the truth of how she really felt about herself.

She was naturally slim and had a great figure, yet, she was unhappy with her appearance. She was longing for the ‘perfect’ body, the beautiful skin and hair too.

Every time she looked at herself in the mirror, she thought it’s not good enough.

She went on diets, did extreme exercise to make her body look better, yet she couldn’t reach the ‘perfect’ body. It was never enough.

There were times when she felt she had achieved a ‘good’ look but that feeling didn’t last long, because she soon found another fault on her body, another spot on her skin which put her back to where she started.

Later she yo-yo dieted, lost then gained weight again and again.

A good few years later she was faced with a serious health scare which shifted something in her. She looked at life differently. Her priority wasn’t her body anymore rather her whole well-being – to stay alive.

She went on a journey where she discovered that her body doesn’t determine her personality.

She was not her body. She merely lived in her body. It’s almost like she was renting it. Her job was to look after it, but whether it was small or large, it didn’t change anything about her.

She realised that whether she felt good or bad, her body didn’t change. Nothing had changed around her when she felt slim other than how she saw herself in the mirror.

What she thought other people thought about her was only in her head. It was her own assumption. Nothing more, nothing less.

She continued to change her mindset and soon was able to look in the mirror and see herself and her body separately, and not together.

A whole new world opened up to her which was filled with self-acceptance, self-love and love for every moment regardless of her body’s size.

Now she teaches others to see things from a different perspective. I teach others to see things from a different perspective. To assume less and to value themselves more.