A client emailed this video to me yesterday.  I found it powerful enough to want to share it with all of you because it got me thinking….

If I could change one thing about my body, what would it be?

If I’d answered this question fifteen years ago, just before the eating disorder started, you’d have got a very specific response: “Everything”.

Ten years ago, after recovering from the eating disorder, my response would have been different.

Eight years ago, after the birth of my first daughter, different again.  Ditto 6 years ago and 4 years ago having given birth to my other two daughters.

Maybe even a year ago I’d have given a different answer to the one I’m about to give you.

If I could change one thing about my body, what would it be?

Nothing.

Honestly.

I wouldn’t change a thing.

I used to hate pretty much everything about myself – my hair colour, my pale eyelashes, my curly, frizzy, wayward hair.  My freckles, my nose, my teeth.  My small boobs.  My stomach.  My big feet.  Being short.  I could go on forever.

But now I can see how amazing my body is.  It’s still here, faithfully doing all the things that a body does, despite everything I’ve put it through.  Years of starving myself and abusing laxatives.  Three pregnancies in relatively quick succession.  Breastfeeding.  Miles and miles of walking.  Summers of sunbathing.  Daily use of make-up and hair straighteners.  Doing sports.

So my eyelashes won’t change colour and my hair will always be curly and one day maybe I’ll embrace them more than I’m able to now, and be able to go make-up and hair-straightener free.  But I’ve learned to love the colour of my hair.  It’s unique to me, it makes me different.  It makes me an individual.  I love my freckles too – each one of them sets me apart from everyone else because no one has the same freckles that I do.  They are mine.

My small boobs are no longer as perky as they were, but they have fed and nourished my three girls and they are in proportion to the rest of me and because of that they are perfect exactly as they are.  My stomach is no longer as flat as it once was.  Nor as toned. But it has been a home for my daughters, kept them safe and secure until they were ready to make their appearance into the world.  It is softer, slightly rounder and because of that it is beautiful.

My big feet will not change size.  And that’s ok because they are best at doing what feet are supposed to do.  My feet are not shaped to be squeezed into pointy high heels.  They are made to carry me and transport me wherever I want to go.  There are lots of places that I still want to go to.

My muscles give me the strength to be able to hold my children, to hug them and make them feel safe and loved.  They enable me to lift others up and support them until they find their balance.  And they help me stand up straight and hold my head high in the face of the challenges that life presents.

If I looked different, I wouldn’t be me.

I may not be 100% comfortable in my skin (yet), but I’m probably about 80% there and continuing to work on accepting and loving the other 20%.

I like me.  There is no-one else in the world like me.

There is no-on else in the world like you either.  You are incredible.  And you are perfect just as you are.

I’d love to know your thoughts on the video, and how it made you feel., so please do leave a comment below.