The concept of having positive imagery about one's body has always been foreign to me. Growing up, I have always had a problem with one thing or the other about myself; if it's not the fact that a friend of my dad’s always calls me “Mai katon kai” (Big head), it was me feeling insecure about my posture or a different of my body, I will often see someone who is very tall and will wise I was a bit taller than I am.
Funny how my mother always tells me of how people loved holding me as a baby because of how cute I was and when I was a bit grown and any time, I will accompanied her somewhere, I get gifts of money just because of how cute I was., but thinking about it sometimes, I felt her story was only one of her little white lies she tells me to make me feel good about myself or to cajole me into do something for her.
I was mostly admired by other guys in my secondary school days, I was a bit hairy so I had facial hair at a very early age which every guy admire and so longed to have, some guys went as far as using medicated spirit on their faces as they were told that it induces hair growth when it was applied in any part of the body, which I didn’t like, and didn’t really feel fine about it because it didn’t get me the right attention I needed to make myself feel good about myself, and it made me hate it even more and increased my insecurity. Whenever I got a female admirer, I felt on top of the world for that whole period; it was like winning a merit award.
Fast forward to when I started loving myself more, was when I stopped caring about how I looked or how others see me. I had the conviction that I was made beautiful and perfect by God, and I stopped paying attention to what others thought of me, which made me love myself even more. I recall a time when I called myself the ladies' man; that was how beautiful I felt about myself during that period. I realised that the body was just like a casing that houses me, and the real me is my soul and spirit living in that body.
Having a beautiful soul is what matters, so I focused strongly on building myself, learning to be the best I can be. The best souls are the ones that touch the lives of others in a significant way. With this mentality, I have grown from a person who did not feel self-worthy or worthy of love to a person who loves himself more, which is the importance of Body Positivity.
The body was made to house you, and one should not worry or mind about what shape the body is or what colour the skin is; we ought to be comfortable with whatever shape or form, for as long as the body is functioning and serves its purpose of existing.
All images are mine.
Thank you for reading. My name is 