5 Steps to Starting Your Body Positive Journey

by Pantea Envy

As a child I endured bullying for my weight and height, was constantly in fights, and spent most of the school year trying to defend myself for being curvy. Everyone is beautiful, yet people get pigeonholed into the stereotypes, labels, and false ideas of what is “beautiful” or “perfect.”

I’m not perfect, I love my flaws, and I understand my imperfections are what make me, ME! I’m proud of my body, I’m not trying to prove anything or adhere to anyone’s standards. One day, I decided that this is my body and no one can control the way that I feel about my body or myself.

My mother always said “Power is control, control is power. NEVER allow someone to have the power to control how you feel about yourself.”

Having a strong independent role model like my mother around brought me to where I am now, loving my curves and myself. After a few of these isolated incidents, I founded my hashtag #LuckyToBeCurvy. Creating my empowerment movement, I inspired many people to share & post their stories and images, showing the world that we are all #Lucky To Be Curvy.

I made it my main goal to show the world that you can be yourself and to inspire body confidence in every single person that felt they weren’t good enough, or didn’t have enough confidence to post their pictures & share their stories. As well as running that blog, I’m running a plus size fashion & lifestyle blog, sharing my #ootd, fashion tips, makeup ideas, inspirational quotes/stories, and sharing behind the scenes of my life as a plus size model.

As I move forward, I’d love to continue my body image positive path while trying to bring change not only into the industry but to make everyone understand that it’s not just about loving & accepting your body but about loving yourself as a whole.

Here are 5 ways to start your body positive journey with a bang!

1 – Exercise – The simple act of exercise brings plenty of benefits, especially when it comes to building your body confidence. While exercising you get psychological & physical benefits, reducing feelings of anxiety, depression, and increasing your energy! Making sure you work out even if it’s once a week helps you enjoy yourself, boosts self-esteem, and just being able to take time out for yourself to work out shows your own self-worth as you’ll enjoy setting a schedule for yourself to follow through.

2 – Stop Playing the Comparison Game – Constantly comparing yourself to others will do nothing to but destroy your self-confidence. In life you need to concentrate on what accomplishments you have achieved, and what you are going to accomplish in the future. Comparing your path to someone else’s will do nothing but make you feel inadequate. Stop focusing on other people: what they have, their appearance, their schooling, families, and relationships. You have no idea what that person has, or desires, and for all you know they may want something YOU have! No one is ever perfect, and that’s the best part! We are all unique in our own ways, and that’s what it’s all about! We all are our own beautiful person.

3 – Wear what you want, whenever you want! – Don’t you love the feeling of your favorite sun dress, or maybe that crop top you’ve been waiting all winter to pop on, or that sweatshirt you just can’t live without! My favorite thing to do is play dress-up. Sometimes you may feel like you can’t pull something off, or that you’re not brave enough to wear an article of clothing out. Forget that, and wear what you want, WHEN YOU WANT! The best way to feeling like the fierce confident superhero you are is wearing anything that makes you feel more like YOU! If you want to rock a crop top, do it! If you feel like you can take on the world when you’re rocking that fresh & fierce outfit, you are doing it right!

4 – Don’t allow anyone to faze you – Basically take everything that anyone has ever thought about you, and toss it in the trash. You prevent yourself from trying anything, hold yourself back, and live in a constant state of self-doubt, when you care or allow other people’s thoughts about you control your life, and faze you. Stay true to yourself: you know the truth, so the lies and criticism other people have won’t faze you in life, but will bring you above the negativity. Do YOU. No one can faze you or break you down. Build yourself up.

5 – Do something you love! – This should be a given: do anything that makes you happy that you love to do! Me, I love to look into the mirror and dance with some Drake or Beyoncé on! Maybe reading a book makes you happy, singing a song, drawing a picture, or coffee and a walk in the park, it could be anything! The main goal is to do what makes you happy! You are a unique individual, with equally rare interests and loves that you need to be reminded of every day! Treat yourself or just get dressed up and go out on the town! You should always take time for yourself because you have your own self-worth and your self-confidence starts with YOU.

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