Built Different, Built Enough

So I wouldn’t say I’ve faced direct body shaming or had issues with body image, at least not in a way that deeply affected me. But if I had a dollar for every time someone commented on my body, whether it was too thin, not fat enough, or just not ideal, I’d probably have enough to fund a campaign against body shaming. But yeah, sure, there were occasional jokes and banters, but I either laughed along or just ignored them.

Growing up, I went through different phases. I was super thin in my early years. I was fit throughout my school because I played cricket and other sports like Coco. And then as the competitive exams took over, I started preparing myself for engineering, physical activities, they kind of took a backseat. So long study hours, stress, and then COVID happened and everything contributed to weight gain. But I think what I struggled with wasn’t people’s opinions, it was my own motivation. I kept telling myself I needed to get back in shape, just so no one would comment, but that motivation never lasted. In the end, I think it was more of the health concerns that started motivating me to working towards having a healthier and fitter body rather than being fat or thin or whatnot.

So I think the key here is that the body should be fit both mentally and physically, but fitness not necessarily means being thin or being or maybe, you know, having six-pack abs or something like that. It has to be because every person has different DNA, every person has different genetics. Some people are fat in general, but that does not mean that they are not healthy. So you have to have a calm mind. You need to compliment people on their energy, you know, their discipline or passion and not just their looks because that does not define their health or that does not define how fit they are mentally or physically. So when we make this shift and this focus from appearance to like well-being, I think that’s when we create an environment where people will feel more empowered and not embarrassed for having the kind of body they have.

Body shaming definitely. It definitely does have an impact. So even when people, like I said, even when people had like made some funny banters or jokes about how my body was or how my body still is, I just play along with it. But it definitely, you know, it hits you in your head and you think about it a lot. You want to get criticized just so that people stop talking about it. So it puts a lot of pressure and stress and I believe scientifically too, if you have like more stress, it becomes more difficult for you to deal with all the things that are happening around you. And I don’t think people in general want to be too thin or too fat or are unfit by choice. For some, it’s just how their body is and for others, there are mental, emotional or other physical challenges at play. So no one chooses struggle. So instead of making people feel worse about their bodies, we should acknowledge that fitness isn’t about a perfect shape. It’s about health, strength and feeling good in your own skin, I believe.

So, I think to anyone out there who is who is facing body shaming right now, I think all you gotta do is stay strong in your head, try to believe in what you actually believe in, not get moved or swayed or manipulated by what people say.

Join some groups if that helps, talk to people that are like you and that are facing problems like you, share your ideas, be more open about it and try to create an awareness amongst people and make it a topic open to all rather than keeping it confined and bottled up in yourself.

Because that is kind of what I believe would be the key to everything going wrong in the future. You cannot let everything bottle up because one day it will burst out. So you gotta do that and make sure that you are pretty open about it and are accepting all the change and whatever is needed to get done to be fit in your head and physically as well.