When it comes to your perspective – you have a choice.
You have SO much more control than you know, especially when it comes to the perspective you take about YOUR body.
I’m going to cut right to the chase here with a celebrity example:
I was watching trash TV (and I’m not ashamed to admit it) while washing the dishes, kind of my zone out time every now and then. There was a specific scene where, in a nutshell, Kim Kardashian was crying on a beach chair during a vacation in Mexico because she had just gotten word that paparazzi took photos, unflattering photos, of her in her bikini just hours earlier. She ran inside away from everyone else to start untagging herself before anyone else saw these photos, vowing to not go back outside again. Essentially her vacation was over, she was homebound for the rest of her vacation.
And while I feel for her, because I can’t possibly know what it feels like to have unflattering photos taken for millions of people to see and judge, I also see how I have avoided things in my own unfamous life because of the fear of an unflattering photo being taken, or the fear of looking fat! This is one of the most famous women on the planet, known for and profitable from her curvy body and beauty, being reduced to inconsolable tears because of cellulite (again, in a nutshell). The perspective, or point of view, that she chose was that the way people will view her body via these paparazzi photos is more important than the experience of a vacation in Mexico with family and friends.
And here’s an example from the opposite side of the spectrum – Ashley Graham has “done the unthinkable” and released a swimsuit campaign starring an entirely unphotoshopped group of women, including her mom! And if you don’t already know, this campaign is featuring Ashley, who herself is a plus size model, as well as other women with REAL bodies, not the stereotypical model type. In a nutshell, these photos are full of curves, cellulite, and maybe most shocking of all PRIDE. While this is definitely a deviation from the standard swimsuit photos we see in magazine, I’m not really surprised that Ashley Graham is spearheading something like this. She is very outspoken about being proud of her body, curves and all, and her perspective is that all body shapes and sizes are beautiful (cellulite and all).
Now you probably have personal feelings towards Kim Kardashian and/or Ashley Graham – but I urge you to look at these two women, who are both renowned for their physical beauty, and notice how their two polar opposite perspectives affect their lives. Both have curves, both have cellulite, both are making careers from their modeling, BUT one perspective resulted in missing out on an experience because of the fear of how other people would see her body and the other embraces her body in its natural state and even showcases other “real” bodies in an arena usually reserved for the unnaturally thin.
I see this as an incredible example of the power of choosing your perspective. We may not have as much fame, money, or confidence as either of these women, BUT we have the exact same ability to choose our own perspective, especially as it relates to our bodies.
Too often and too easily I meet women who don’t utilize the power of choosing their own perspective- they default to using the shape or size of their bodies as an excuse for why they can’t do this or do that. And I get, I used to do the same thing, but not anymore- YOU and I have the power to choose what we do and the experiences we have, regardless of the size and shape of our bodies. It’s all in your perspective 🙂