Tag: body positivity

Body narration

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(A kind reminder to myself)

Everyone knows about the two way relationship between the mind and the body. Everyone talks about how to be fit, how to move in order to have better mental health. It seems, that only looking at such direction, the two way dynamics already makes so much sense.

But I wonder, how about the role of the mind in our bodily health? How about the fact that being all stressed slows our metabolism badly? Or how our immune system plummets due to worries and anxiety? Or the fact that our bodies seem to all embrace the same narratives that the society, the people around us are telling despite our wide differences?

Since small, I was told about how a girl body should look like, which was bad enough. Then I grew up a little bit, the story expanded to what a certain type of bodies could do or become. And now, being closer to the age of 30, as I’ve met more people, read more and seen more, I’ve also been introduced to the slow deterioration of the human body. “You will feel your age, just wait!”

Hearing those narratives about bodies (whose bodies?), it would be so strange if my body doesn’t begin to act out those narratives. Since they’re personal experience, it seems so real to my brain to start to listen and believe. But I have to stop myself and ask: Whose personal experience?

Definitely not mine.

You can tell me beauty is abs and muscles. Good for you, and my idea of beauty is the diversity of shapes.

You tell me, fat people do nothing. But from what I see, they dance, they exercise, they move their bodies, they break the norms. Anything and everything that a skinny body does, a fat body can too.

And THIS one baffles me the most: they say, after the age of 28, you can’t party, you start to have back pain, your metabolism is slow, you can’t function without sleeping early. And then you give me unsolicited health advices. I am sorry for you, but please let me feel my body, let me love my body and love the way it ages.

I know many people are worried about their loved ones’ well-being. But if you’re my loved one, the best you can do is helping me love my body. When I love my body, I will feel it better, I will know what is needed, what is not. And aging is not scary. It simply means that you’re alive and you’re living your life.

From now, I will only accept the language of love and appreciation. Although I appreciate your worries about my body, please let me own it, and celebrate it the way it is. My goal is never to be alive as long as possible, but to live so I can enjoy my time, to live fully, peacefully and lovingly.

I claim back my body. Fully, kindly and patiently.

My body and my green mesh crocheted by me💃

Why and how everyone should be their own best friend

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Not until recent time have I realized how difficult it is for me and my friends to gather, and how I should start to have fun on my own more often.

Since we – my friends and I – have our own busy lives and plans, scheduling a date is a real struggle. It takes us true efforts to all agree on which date, place, or activities should we indulge ourselves in. For instance, the other day, I found out about a live music bar which, to me, would be an awesome place for our group to hang out. My friends, however, shown no interest and kept suggesting other places. Eventually, I went there by myself and was absolutely enjoying it.

By the end of that evening, I got so hyped that I just wanted to tell my friends how wonderful everything was, about the band, the atmosphere and the drink. But as soon as I picked up my phone and was about to text them, I remembered the reason why I spent the evening alone. Obviously, my friends would have no interest in listening about it, so I was just turning on my laptop and turning those awesome moments into words like what I do most of the time.

It is undeniable that happiness or enjoyment is supposed to be shared and multiplied among oneself and others. But this doesn’t mean you can not have fun on your own. Let’s think it this way: there is only one person in this world who is capable of loving you eternally, who ultimately shares the same interests and hobbies with you, who truly understands you, who knows all of your problems and secrets, who is your soulmate.

Is there anyone on your mind already?

Yes, it is you, yourself. No one other than you could be so cool and ideal. Who doesn’t want to hang out with that special person!

That’s why I’m striving to be a best friend of my own.

It’s not easy at all, especially when hard times come as it feels like the world is going against me and even I couldn’t be there for myself to rely on. That feeling sucks. But the good news is that things have been changing for the better. I don’t find myself get caught in that dark place as often as I used to be. Since I have been kinder to myself, I am now very mindful of how important it is to tell myself: “Hey, I am here with you”. Not only am I moving heaven and earth just to be available to myself all the damn time, I’m also exerting myself to be an honest, positive friend.

“Be a friend of thyself and others will be so too.” – Thomas Fuller

This journey to self-love can be extremely difficult sometimes. But it’s possible. You can be a friend of your own, a nice one, by comforting yourself, conversing with yourself with kind words, doing the things you love, dating yourself and taking care of yourself. Do those things little by little, day by day and you will soon realize how wonderful you are as a friend.

Let’s start with a pen and a piece of paper. Write down 10 traits of your ideal friend, or simply the things you want to do with them. My list begins with:

1. Traveling to Thailand

…

 

How do couples manage their time?

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I don’t know. If you know the answer, please tell me.

Believe or not, I’m in my early twenties and I have never been in a relationship. I have no idea what it’s like to actually be in one. But recently, I’ve been witnessing my one close friend handling with hers, which has triggered this question in me.

She is a college student. Since also being one myself, I know exactly how strenuous and exhausting a day of a student’s life could be with tons of assignments, projects, not to mention the inevitable part-time jobs and extra-curriculum activities to polish the CV. Everything will easily run out of control and drive you mad if you’re not able to manage a little while for yourself during the day to reflect and relax. I sometimes struggle a lot to just finish all the tasks without any time to take care of myself. But somehow, my friend is still doing very well. Above all, she’s able to do that WHILE BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP.

How does she do it???

How do people do it???

I’m not talking about toxic, abusive relationships but healthy, happy ones. As far as I know, being in a relationship with someone else means that you’d have to take out a specific amount of your own time every day for that special one to take them out, send a few texts or at least to think about them. In other words, you would need to truly make efforts to tailor your schedule to your significant others’ in order to make sure that they feel cared and loved. I don’t know how much time lovers spend for each other daily, or how much is enough. But I’m sure it is there somewhere included in their schedules which might be already tight with their jobs, studying, hobbies or even daily routines.

This truly makes me stunned. Love couples – masters of time management, you guys got my respect!

Still, can someone explain how? I’m ready to take some notes.

…

Or being in a relationship is probably not difficult as I think it is. I’m just terrible with time management and being busy is the excuse why I am still single till this day.

But am I sad because of that?

Not at all.

I don’t rush for it either. I can imagine how my life could turn into a hot mess if I get caught up in a relationship. So thank God for letting me be free and single!

Moreover, what’s the point of whining, being miserable all the time just because of “loneliness”? Are you actually lonely?

I don’t know what your answer is but I’m only single, not lonely. I’m surrounded by my family and friends. I’m taking my time to look after myself, to fully embrace myself, to learn and grow. Maybe I’m spending too much time for myself. Maybe this is the reason why I’m bad at time management. Maybe this is the reason why I’m single. If so, I’m totally cool with it. I don’t need any guy to make me feel happy and loved.

At the end of the day, being in a relationship is not a bad thing at all. Being single isn’t either. The key is always self-love. Once you’re fully in love with yourself, happiness will forever be there whether you’re single or taken.

Coping with bad grades

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I’m here. Again, at the exact same position I was last year when I was grumbling about school, grades. As always, a semester has passed by resulting in all the traumas as the finals’ grades have been revealed and they are not to my expectation.

I feel lost, sad, disappointed, hopeless, upset, jealous,… The list of my feelings can go on and on with all the negative adjectives you could think of. I’m confused. I’m confused by myself and my life.

Let’s rewind back to the last semester in which I was full of energy and motivation to begin with. I set my goals and was so determined to achieve them. The roadmap I drew out was so clear. I confidently invested major on my studying. I worked extremely hard. And the finals came along. But eventually, all of my endeavors went zero.

“What did I do wrong?”

“Why nothing good can happen to me?”

I constantly doubt about my worthiness, whether I deserve anything good in life.

…

Hey, wait a minute.

Do the grades at school determine your grade of life?

More specifically, how do you measure happiness?

Look around. You have all the good things you need. You have your family who loves you unconditionally. You have your best friends who are always there for you. You have your lovely goofy pets. You have access to knowledge, to entertainment. You have house and food. You’re privileged already.

Humans are greedy. They never have enough of anything. They always want more. They never get satisfied about themselves. They only look at what they don’t own, which is massive, and feel bad without noticing the precious things they have. That makes them prone to negativity whenever facing failure.

Dear myself, failure is the tool to success. If it’s what you have at this moment, use it. It will lead you back to the right direction. Don’t let yourself be defeated by just a tiny failure. Your biggest goal is still waiting for you to achieve. So get yourself together, stand up straight and move forward.

…

And the talks between I and myself go on and on…

“It’s ok to not be ok”

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The first month of 2017 has been like magic to me. And no, I didn’t win the lottery or gain any materialistic things. But I did find a thing. A thing that I’m not sure whether it is tangible. All I can assure is that has shed light on me after days of darkness. The self-love community on the Internet. More specifically, the body positivity on Instagram.

Some people might be questioning how some randoms posts or pictures of strangers on the Internet could dramatically change someone’s life. I agree. Those things do not change me. Instead, they shift me towards positivity by telling me how I should stay myself, stay true, stay beautiful.

From that on, I’VE BEEN THE ONE WHO DECIDED TO CHANGE. It’s my decision to change the way I view the world, myself and the relations between us. It took me a while to figure out everything. It took a lot of self-reflection as I was constantly questioning my own existence. Then finally, it came to the point that I realized it was my mindset that had been torturing myself, making me suffer toxic feelings the whole time. And I knew for sure that it was time for me to do something about it.

I’ve embarked on this self-love journey, the journey of optimism. I’ve started learning how to love myself, to try my best to exclude negativity and anything related to that. At the same time, I also realized that the journey of fully embracing myself is definitely not easy. Lots of lessons out there are waiting to be learned.

Now, I’m dealing with one of those lessons.

The lesson began when I went to school again after a long holiday season. It’s been a week of new semester, internship, part-time job. I truly want to believe in myself that I could handle everything. However, there is a part of me that is getting weaker and weaker. At first, I could not comprehend that since I was so sure that I was stronger than ever.

Fortunately, my light-bulb moment has been underway. The point I’ve been missing is that I am a human and I’m going against nature. More specifically, while I’m trying too hard to be upbeat all the time, I’m accidentally suppressing all of my other feelings. The stress, the rage, the grief, the guilt, the disappointment, etc. I thought I was putting on my fences to not let them in. The fact, unfortunately, is that they are inside me. They are parts of me. And what I’m doing is trapping them inside. I forgot I’m human and it’s normal to have those feelings. No normal human beings can be smiley 24/7.

Therefore, as the problem has been defined, I’m taking action. I’m accepting that side of me. I’m letting them out by writing, sharing the world my story. To be told that everything will be ok. To be told that It’s ok to not be ok.