This is for YOU.

*disclaimer! Mention of topics of body image and mental health*

A walk on the beach, bonfire with friends. Late summer nights. Warm air. Laughing. Long walks, quick dips in the river, sunbathing and listening to music. Finding those quiet spots. Bike rides. Ice cream. Too many fizzy drinks. A picnic on a field, or by a lake.

Pure presence and nothing else but the moment you are in.

What a shame it would be if you had to care about anything else but enjoying life as it is now… 

This is for all our young men and women! Regardless of who you are, you need to hear this.

You are a person and a soul first before you are a body, not the other way round.

With increasing pressures, corrupted representations everywhere, social media and ads having the control and telling you what is right or wrong, good or bad, beautiful or not - whether we realise it, or it is just unconscious - we are being influenced. Especially our young people. We need them, therefore it is our duty to take care of them.

Mental health is deteriorating at faster rates as we’re “moving forwards” as a society. Children having mental health and body image issues earlier with increasing numbers and significance. Makes you wonder. Are we making the right decisions? Are we being conscientious enough? Are we consuming and creating the right things?

Through media - especially certain platforms - we’ve been conditioned to look, judge, objectify and defy ourselves and our worth based on our looks. Less and less focus being on our actual values as human beings and the actual functionality of our bodies - if it’s healthy, it is GOOD! -. 

Acclimatised to seek validation through likes, others attention and made to believe that we’re only good enough if we receive all that. 

Your body fights for you every single day, keeps you healthy and functions without a break.

Let’s develop a healthy relationship with our bodies from the inside out, rather than the outside in because IT DOES NOT MATTER what you look like to KNOW that your body is working beautifully. Let’s start appreciating all that we have, stop caring and comparing - not just ourselves but those around us to unattainable, non-existent standards - let’s make everyone feel like they take precedence first, before their body does.

Let’s enjoy life as it is. As it’s such a gift.

It’s been normalised to care so much about looks, now it’s our job to change this.

This shouldn’t even be a topic of conversation. 

Because at the end of the day, you are you before you are a body.