There has been a lot of talk-in-the-town about body shaming and body image lately. Various influencers through out the world are revealing their flaws and urging people to not try and attain ‘perfection’ that they often see on magazine covers and million of photo-shopped internet images.

What got our attention was this particular Instagram post by Malin Olofsson, a body-positivity fitness blogger from UK who recovered after 15 years of anorexia. 

Instagram

This badass body has given me yet another year. I am so grateful of my body and all of you supporting me. You are amazing and I love u ❤😭 ——————————————– I had the best birthday ever and I realize how lucky I am to have such incredible people around me. I used to hate my birthday, I dread that people would find out, wishing me a happy b-day. I didn’t know how to handle the attention. I didn’t feel that I deserved it. Everything felt fake. ——————————————– I have worked really hard on getting better at receiving and accepting compliments, stopping myself from neglecting the positive words from others and instead just say ‘thank you’. This year I decided to say thank you when people wished me a happy birthday rather than saying ‘I don’t celebrate b-days, it’s stupid’ ——————————————– And I mean seriously. The response! There are such amazing people out there. I am so grateful for the support and friendships that I have. Both here and also in ‘the real world’. Thank you for the flowers, the birthday-wishes and the unconditional love and support. You are all amazing and I love u so much. Be kind, be considerate, show others how much you appreciate them. Make an effort. Support one another. Seemingly small things can mean so much to other people.

A post shared by MALIN 🌱 (@malinxolofsson) on

With a following of over 13k, Malin talks about how periods affect a woman. Highlighting the same, she posted an image of herself showing the ‘visual signs of PMS’.

Instagram

Malin captioned this image saying,

In another post, she talked about body-positivity quoting her own example and how she hated her own body for the longest time. 

Instagram

This is what you didn’t see and couldn’t tell from looking at my last post. It is all about angles! Remember this. Pictures are merely pictures – they are not a reflection of the entire reality. It is a flat representation of a small part of the real world. Of a real person. A real person gets bloated sometimes. It is normal. A normally functioning body bloats. It is okay – it might be uncomfortable but that makes it even more important to watch out for what type of emotion you attach and associate with bloating. You can decide whether you are gonna make it even worse through going into self-loathing or if you are going to be neutral about the situation, simply accepting the fact that you are bloated and realize that it is normal, that your body’s response is exactly what it is suppose to be. Self-acceptance is not about only accepting and loving your body when it is ‘where and how you want it to be’ – No, it is about accepting and being neutral about your body EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. It is to not be looking into the future, thinking ‘when I’ve lost x kgs’ or ‘when I’m fit’ or ‘when I’m not bloated’. If you do not accept your body at this point – changing it physically won’t make a single fucking difference. It is not your body that is flawed – what’s flawed is your approach towards it. And it is NOT YOUR FAULT that you feel like this!! -But!!! It is you, and only you, who can change how you feel about your body. And it is not through physical change that this feeling will dissolve. Believe me. When I see myself blaming and hating on my body for bloating, I take a step back – and I decide in that moment 👏🏽 HELL 👏🏽 NO 👏🏽 – and I realize that it is up to me, that I can decide in that moment how I want to feel about my body. That if I want to – I have the power to decide, in that moment, to accept my body – to be kind and self-caring towards my body. Give yourself the opportunity to try this out. Just for once. And see how it makes you feel. Be kind – most importantly towards yourself. Because you will always have to live with yourself.

A post shared by MALIN 🌱 (@malinxolofsson) on

Periods are hard. They hold the power to destroy one’s self image in more than just physical terms. This message illuminates a beautiful way to make a lot of girls and women around the world understand that they are not alone. 

You are worth it.