The beautiful body challenge

The Beautiful Body Challenge

This article is for the ladies. Whether you’re a tiny toned muscle machine or curvy like me. A few things have led to the writing of this article, but two stand out to me the most.

The first was a few weeks back, when, after seeing part of my body in a changing room mirror, I sent my boyfriend a sad message saying: “I wish I could just make friends with my body”.

And as he does, he responded with suggestions, help and advice to help me get the body I want.

The realisation that came from reading his reply though, was that I don’t want to lose weight, I don’t want to eat like a bird or live in the gym, I just want to accept the body I have and be happy with that.

I used to be completely happy with my body and I never focused on its imperfections. But after I developed feelings for a boy who called any woman bigger than a size 8 fat, I got into bad habits with the way I look at my body. He’s long gone now and pole dancing has helped but I still haven’t managed to  completely shrug the negative image of my body that I developed.

The second thing that spurred me to write this article was when on two different occasions, while talking to two different women, they both made remarks about their bodies not being skinny or feeling fat. What stunned me about this was the fact that both of these women have bodies that I envy and admire. I wish I could be them, but they don’t see their bodies as good enough.

Which is why I’ve decided that enough is enough. Do you know that if every woman in the world woke up tomorrow and realised how wonderful her body is, the economy would probably crash. Markets rely on our insecurities to make money. Now this is never going to completely stop, but it’s about time a step was taken, even if it’s a small one, only taken by only a few, to see our bodies in all their beauty.

This is why I’m challenging myself, to the beautiful body challenge.

The rules: openly share the things about my body that I am proud of and that make it beautiful. To objectively look at the things I don’t like. And if I’m feeling brave, to share a picture of my body.

The point of this: to move the focus onto the good parts of my body and to be objective about the thing I don’t like. But most importantly to start a more loving relationship with my body, because when you love something you’re more likely to take care of it properly.

 So here it goes.

My name is Ashley Kim Churchyard and my body is beautiful and I’m proud of it because it’s strong and healthy.

I love my arm, my back, my chest, my stomach and even my hips. My body can do amazing things when I pole dance, and my curves are beautiful.

I hate the back and side of my thighs and my bum. I want them to be trimmer and more toned.

The truth, I am the only one that sees my body in this negative light and it is time that I see it for what it is.

My body is beautiful

Now, this is where you come in, because I am challenging you to the beautiful body challenge as well.

Share with me and the women around you, why you love your body or why you’re proud of it. Tell us what you don’t like. And if you want to, share a photo with us of the body you’re so proud of. Let’s try build better and more positive images of ourselves together.

Let’s inspire each other take care of our bodies as parts of us which we love, instead of punishing them as something we hate. Let’s start a conversation.

Good luck.