For the final week of Mental Health Awareness Month, our amazing Accounts Assistant, Sabrina speaks honestly to us about her body confidence journey.
We LOVE to see it!
If you asked me several years ago I never would have thought I’d be writing a blog about body confidence, quite honestly my initial reaction when approached to do it internally was Woah, why me? Am I even that confident? Upon reflection I have came such a long way, so here goes…
I think it all started to go wrong when I was quite young…in many ways I loved school but I was on the heavy side, always last to be picked for team sports, I was picked on for my weight and my glasses. Kids can be cruel and I think it impacted me subconsciously for years. I started a trend of hiding behind baggy jumpers and black clothes. On nights out I wouldn’t wear my glasses, so self-conscious that I looked awful, even though I couldn’t see properly without them!
For years holidays were times of anxiety, the urge to intensively diet weeks beforehand, trying to find outfits that wouldn’t show too much skin or be too tight. I would never be brave enough to pack the bikini. Once on holiday I would look on at all the beautiful ladies confident in their bodies, loving life and making the most of their curves in colourful dresses and gorgeous bikinis, I envied them regardless of shape and size they were so much more confident than I am.
At the age of 28 I made the decision to relocate from Harrogate to London, I had moved several times before but never on my own. I had no job and no home to move to in London and some definitely thought I was more than a little crazy. Believing in myself and succeeding was a turning point and a huge step in boosting my confidence. I wanted to do more to build confidence but was unsure where to start.
I began improving my diet and exercising more, finding I was gradually losing weight but more importantly I had more energy and felt better in myself. This allowed me to start putting more thought in to my wardrobe injecting some colour and choosing styles flattering for my figure. Taking more pride in what I was wearing and choosing the right shapes and sizes helped me grow in confidence yet again. Whilst consciously putting effort into diet, exercise and wardrobe choices helped, at this point I realised it is not enough. The deep seated roots of the low self-confidence remained.
Gradually after some thought I came to the realisation that I have no end of kind words, positivity and motivation for others, but I am so hard on myself. The table truly turned when I accepted I can be nicer to myself.
I don’t think my confidence was lost due to one thing and it certainly wasn’t improved by one thing alone, these are the key things I still focus on to live my best, most confident life: Make better life choices for the happy bubbly person that I am…
💌 Surround myself with happy, positive people - I was unhappy in my career so I sought a job more in line with who I am. I found a home at Curvy Kate and they definitely match my passion and I loved the fact that they aim to make every woman feel fabulous about their curves. Being surrounded by positive, friendly people along with going from wearing a ill-fitting 38E to 34FF/G helped both my mental health and my lingerie and swimwear game went from zero to hero.💌 Love myself a little more– having a bad day get up, go for a walk, shower and put on my favourite underwear, wear something nice add a spritz of my favourite perfume to smell amazing ready for the day ahead or something as simple as have a bubble bath and watch a movie after a long day.💌 Embrace who I am on the inside and the outside - wear what I want to, when I want to. On my last trip away I wore a different bikini every day! I felt great and nobody batted an eye other than to ask me where I had got my gorgeous bikinis from at which point I could proudly recommend Curvy Kate.
Each day I still have to nip any negative thoughts in the bud, I accept compliments if I receive them and I acknowledge that I don’t need to be perfect I just need to be me.
