Body positive with psoriasis

You are beautiful, yes you. No, don’t turn and look behind you, I am talking to you. You are beautiful. You are unique and you are wonderful. For too long the world has told us we do not fit the standard of beauty. A standard of beauty - have you ever heard of anything that ridiculous in your life? We were never meant to all look the same like humans pressed from the same cookie cutter.

Body positivity shows us that it is okay and wonderful to have a positive body image no matter what the social and societal so-called norms are. There is no perfect body shape or size, there is no perfect face or skin tone or texture. We are all beautiful in our own way and that is the way it is meant to be.

My body now compared to before psoriasis

I have thick thighs, I have curves and I have stretch marks. My body is not what is was when I was 18 anymore. Nothing is as firm and as perky as it used to be.

To top this my body is adorned is red patches that give me a look of a leopard with pinkish-red spots. They come out on my face, my arms, legs, torso, and anything else it can find in between. So for six-plus months of the year, this really just adds to the charm.

The funny thing is that when I was 19 and in the best shape, (everything was still tight and perky) I still had issues with my body. It took me developing psoriasis and gaining a whole lot of weight to finally realize how stupid the societal “standards” are.

What psoriasis taught me about body positivity

Learning to be body positive with psoriasis is quite tricky. Having psoriasis taught me to be okay with how I look at this present moment. Today my skin may be better or worse than tomorrow.

I had to learn to be okay with it either which way, this took so much time. I learned to ignore the way people stare at my skin and just live my life. There is a certain kind of peace that comes with accepting your skin and being okay with how it looks. The way people look at you starts to bother you a little less.

Be kind to yourself and your body with psoriasis

Be nice to yourself. I mean really nice, in the thoughts you think and the things you say out loud. Your heart cannot tell the difference between what you say in your head and what you say out loud.

So feed your heart the good stuff, allow it to see how wonderful you are with all your spots and stripes. The jiggly bits too, for everything my body has seen me through I am grateful.

Body positivity means loving yourself

Some people seem to think that if you are body positive, you think you are perfect. This is wrong. It means you love yourself and you are and you get to be positive and happy with yourself and your body no matter where you are on your journey.

Just to give you an example; I have been on a weight loss journey for three months now, and I learned to love myself every step of the way. I see my psoriasis and yes some days I really wish It was not there. But I am okay with it, I get to wear short sleeve shirts and still feel positive about the way I look.

Wear that cute dress or those shorts. You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. You are beautiful.