On body confidence and self-representation (Because we are more than just pictures on Instagram)

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Thighs, two ways, plus slightly horrible 70s decor while standing by a lift. (All the glamour...)

Thighs, two ways, plus slightly horrible 70s decor while standing by a lift. (All the glamour...)

I don't really want to post this picture - I've had it on my phone for two months now. It feels, I don't know... exposing. Plus who knows if I even look like that now. But you know what? Fuck it. Fuck it all.

I have been having so many talks with people lately about body confidence and body positivity (and the struggles to find it) and about how being happy with ourselves feels like so much effort - whether you're 15 or 55 - to the point where it can feel too exhausting to even try sometimes... Well, for me, part of smashing through this self-scrutiny is by being honest. Honest with myself, honest with the representation of myself, honest about my feelings.

So here are my thighs, two ways, having just been for a run. No one pose is wrong. It's still my body. But in seconds, we can shift our bodies to look a certain way and I think we need to remember that. Instagram images are just one particular pose caught in one second. Images can lie. Images can deceive.

I'm not saying don't enjoy your best angle. Please do. Please celebrate yourself and feel good. But we are more than careful poses. My body changes constantly. Learning to love it is about learning to love it not just when I feel like these thighs are camera-ready.

It is about learning to appreciate it when it's just slumped on the sofa. Or laid out in bed.

When it's sat down, belly round, thighs spread against the chair.

It's facing it, and appreciating it, all ways. All angles. All poses.

It's about not looking at photos on Instagram and then ourselves and then back to Instagram and wondering why we can't look like other people. It's about reality vs photo fiction. It's remembering that we don't live in a world of photos. We need to like ourselves off-camera too. We need to love ourselves all ways. So let's keep trying.

It's tiring, I know, I really do know. But it's really, really worth it.

(Ps I can't do anything about the pout. Well, I probably could, actually. Next time. One thing at a time...)

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(Previously posted on Instagram, but I thought I'd share here, too, because I think it's really important to keep hammering home a point. It's a tiny bit edited, so forgive the odd word change...)