Hi Aerie Girls, I’m excited to start blogging and sharing topics that mean a lot to me with you all. In this post I wanted to remind you that you deserve to love your body and appreciate it for what it does for you. I believe changing how you view yourself and deciding to practice self-care will help you to feel more confident in your swim.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BR69Y_VBJtM/?taken-by=aerie
 
With summer and swim season approaching it can start to feel quite intimidating because we are bombarded with messages saying we need to get ‘beach body ready.’ What the fudge is a ‘beach body?’ And why are we conditioned to believe if we don’t have one we can’t feel confident?

Because the concept of a ‘beach body’ has literally been created by society and the media to make us feel insecure so that we are a motivated consumer. Striving to look like the perfected images of unrealistic bodies that are apparently what we all need to look like on the beach. SO NOT TRUE, the airbrushed images aren’t even real and it’s not possible to look like that. And we shouldn’t because we are all meant to be imperfectly perfect – that’s what makes you YOU!

#AerieREAL Love From Iskra: Feel Fab In Your Swim

So here are my top 5 tips to help you feel fab in your swim:

  1. Give up the pursuit of perfection. Perfect does not exist, nearly everyone has cellulite, stretch marks, scars, who decided that these are flaws? Well they’re not, they are the beautiful unique markings that make your body completely unique. Your body does not define your beauty, you are so much more than that. Instead start dedicating time to looking after you from the inside out. Because health starts from the inside and when we start respecting our body and looking after it we become happy and full of positive energy.
  2. Stop comparing yourself to others. Sometimes we do it without even knowing, not just celebs or models we may look up to but even our friends and sisters can sometimes have us feeling jealous and insecure. I used to look at others and think why do they have: perfect skin, slim legs and a thigh gap and I don’t? I had to train myself to think ok well they have x,y,z but that’s them and I can never be them I can only ever be me and also have wonderful qualities. By seeing the beauty in others we can’t diminish our own beauty.
     
    #AerieREAL Love From Iskra: Feel Fab In Your Swim
  3. Be more bodyposi with your girlfriends. I’d love you to share this post with your girlfriends and all start to look out for each other. If you see your girl tearing herself down don’t join in ‘Ah I can’t wear this bikini look at my thighs’ ‘Ugh I know I hate the way I look in my swimsuit’ you can be the one to stop this cycle. Build her back up, tell her how much you love her and how beautiful she is because she’s her.
  4. Stop body shaming others. We can accidentally say something that could be hurtful so always be careful and online too think before you write your comment – would I like someone to say this to me? If the answer is no then stop yourself. Also make sure you protect yourself online, unfollow accounts that make you feel bad and fill your timeline with inspirational ones that make you feel happy or inspire you.
  5. Start celebrating your body for its abilities not its imperfections. For me this is how we change the way we look at ourselves. Instead of looking in the mirror and seeing your imperfections commit to practicing self-care by retraining what you focus on. Try my mirror challenge by looking at yourself and picking out 5 things you love about yourself (I go into more detail on my TEDx talk) these should be personality traits, your accomplishments, morals and values. Then pick out 5 things you love about your body not just for what it looks like but actually what it enables you to do in life. Because we have a lot to be grateful for by having these unique homes that have incredible abilities. So when you hit that beach you’re now thinking wow I’m the bee’s knees, this body is all mine and it’s powerful. I’m so grateful to be here enjoying each day and I will not let the artificial fear of not having a ‘beach body’ ever make me feel insecure and hold me back from living life to the fullest.

xoxo,

Iskra

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