A few days ago, my friend said to me “My body isn’t bikini ready yet”. My response? I told her that everybody is a bikini body. You have a body, you put a bikini on it, BAM: bikini body.
This time of year we are inundated with messaging suggesting that all bodies need to look a certain way. We have been taught that an ideal body exists, and this is never more prominent than in the summer months. This is nothing more than a social construct, a mere invention of the society in which we find ourselves. Sadly, this construct causes harm and creates personal, interpersonal and global chaos.
In reality, there is no such thing as a bikini body, or a summer body or a beach body. Your body is just that. A body. A body that gifts you with the ability to walk along the beach and to hold your loved ones close. Your body is amazing; it takes you about your day and enables you to do the things you need to do and want to do.
And your body, like everyone else’s, deserves to wear a bathing suit. It deserves to feel the air and the sand and the water. It has incredible value and it deserves limitless adventure and love.
Instead of getting lost in the chaos, I encourage you to shift your focus to sustainable self-care practices rooted in kindness, compassion, and self-respect.
If you are needing support with eating disorders, body image issues, self-esteem or self-confidence, the staff at Synergy are here to help.