It's amazing how much positive change we can create in our lives if we just allow ourselves to do so. Embracing new responsibilities and values is a big part of growing older, as is rethinking how and why we admire ourselves.
Laura Mazza, who goes by the name The Mum on the Run on social media and her blog, posted a powerful photo of how having three children changed how she values herself and her body.
She posted a revealing before-and-after photos on social media and expressed how going from a rail-thin girl with a "high belly button" and "protruding bones" made her feel more valuable when she was younger. She also expressed how difficult it was to accept her new body after having three children.
But eventually she learned not only to accept her new body but love it for all its incredible accomplishments.
Her comments on her Facebook post of the same photo, which has since been deleted, are a wonderful window into the mind of a mother as she looks to her past while embracing the present.
"I remember people asking me what my exercise routine was," she wrote about the picture of her younger self. "They admired me. I admired me! I bought a whole new wardrobe. I was so proud. I showed off my body."
Then, she reflected on the photo of herself now. "Stretch marks. A droopy belly button. Thicker, not many bones protruding, but more dimples that represent cellulite," she wrote.
But Mazza eventually changed how she perceives her new body by appreciating all of the blessings it has given her. "I have achieved more with this body, than I have with my old body," she wrote. I've eaten more good foods. I've lived more, I've given more, I've enjoyed more. I've made life. This body, THIS body should be celebrated and admired."
She ended her post with a great tongue-and-cheek-observation: "Love makes you fat."
Here's the whole post.
via Mum on the Run / Facebook
via Mum on the Run / Facebook
via Mum on the Run / Facebook
via Mum on the Run / Facebook
via Mum on the Run / Facebook
Her post wasn't just therapeutic for herself, it inspired countless mothers who've had the same experience.
via The Mum on the Run / Facebook
They thought her post was courageous.
via The Mum on the Run / Facebook
Some mothers could really relate.
via The Mum on the Run / Facebook
Mazza also made really important point on her Instagram post about how her self-perception will influence her daughter's. "What would I say to my daughter?" she asked. "That she is only as good as the number on the scales?"
