Positively Inspirational: Body beautiful

What a wonderful summer we are having so far! Touch wood, its been sunny almost every day here in Essex and we have been loving spending lazy days out in the garden. The pool is up, the BBQ smoking and the kids have been outside chilling with their friends. In fact, my youngest who is sixteen has converted my little summer house (aka my writing nook) into her bedroom and has been sleeping out there every night. Oh to be young and carefree!

Lots of us have been out and about enjoying the weather, some of us have been embracing our summer bods and digging out our bikinis. I’ve not been brave enough yet but I’m determined to wear mine on holiday this year. Body confidence can be a big issue for a lot of us and I love this post from Emma over at ‘Life According to MrsShilts’ – Embracing My Tankini Body where she tells us “I want to remember the moments when I feel proud of my achievements and how I was embracing my tankini body on holiday.” I read this post at a moment when I was dreading trying on my summer swimsuit and Emma’s post gave me that little push to embrace it rather than dread it, and now I can’t wait to get it on and sink into the pool. Thanks Emma!

Accepting the way we look can sometimes be really difficult and some of us even cringe if someone gives us a compliment when we don’t feel we look our best. I’m guilty of this since I piled on the pounds. I know I don’t look as good as I once did (or so I think) so I really do struggle to take compliments. I’m trying to overcome that negative voice inside that tells me the compliment is a lie and start feeling more confident about my looks. Sara Jayne from ‘Keep Up With The Jones Family’ share a post recently about receiving compliments; she tells us “I’m not good with them at all. How do I handle a compliment? So badly. And it’s not because I don’t want them, either. Because I do. I would love to feel good about the way people see me. Yet kind words I just find them so, well, uncomfortable.” Whenever I give someone a compliment I mean what I’m saying and I need to remember that other people do too, so I think it’s time to embrace compliments as well as my tankini body. Start feeling good about ourselves!  This is also a subject that Nadine at JuggleMum raises in her post ‘Celebrating the female body‘.

I watched a great vlog from Tasha over at ‘Living The Mummy Life’ where she discusses body confidence and hopes to raise awareness on body shaming and is keen to make women feel better about their post baby bodies. How negative comments from strangers about the way we look can leave us with deep emotional scars. A great video encouraging us to ignore body shamers and love our not so ‘perfect’ bits.

I totally love this next post from Hayley over at ‘Curves and Curl’ talking about boosting body confidence with ten fabulously positive tips. Hayley emphasizes that “Body confidence and body positivity is very much about mind-set. It’s more about how you feel about your body, and how you connect with it, than about your body itself.” I think she is absolutely spot on. Love her tips!

Abi from ‘Something About Baby’ shares with us how last week she went swimming and wore a bikini and how as a new mum it was a pretty big deal to her. Abi tells us “So do I love my post baby body? Yes. Because it has given me a beautiful baby boy.” I love this message as it is so true. Our bodies gave us the most precious, beautiful gift of all – Our babies!

So lets embrace the body beautiful and make some great summer memories by getting in that pool and enjoying our mummy/daddy bodies!

Lots of Love,
Mama Syder x