What is Body Trust? Part 3

My hunger, my appetites, my longings, my skin, my bones, my size are mine for the taking. I take back my voice, my agency, my worthiness, my belonging in the world of beautiful and diverse beings. I live without apology for the straight lines and curves, living tissue and vulnerable heart that hold my living, breathing manifested story.

I feel where my body begins and I protect where it ends. The marketing, the expectations, the gaze of the “other” belong outside of me and are not for my internalization. I will no longer ingest the external and make it my goal or my standard. I will not trade my right to express my freedom, my dreams, my needs, my wants or my beauty.

I listen for my appetites, all of them. I say yes. I say no. And I say not now. My body is wise. It knows me. It is me. I am it. My body is not an expression of glutton or neglect, nor is it ugly. My body is an expression of life, and of being alive. It is my companion for this unfolding story, replete with unexpected bumps and grooves, loves and losses– and as so, my body expresses my story with its textures, rolls, shapes, peaks and valleys.

I will not betray you, body, for an endless diet or self-improvement project. I will not confuse thinness for health. I will no longer objectify myself, nor will I continue to invest in oppressive beauty standards. I am a person reclaiming my movement, my rhythm, my flow. I seek satisfaction and explore pleasure. I value my inner peace, my self-worth, more than the approval of the outside, stigma and hate inflicted eye.

I will count myself among the millions of other people who have come before me in their struggles to live compassionately in the bodies they have, and I will also count myself among the millions to come who will reclaim their body, and rebuild that trust. I am not alone on the path. In fact, I am helping to transition the world with my courage, my fierceness, my bold and beautiful body.