Love yourself just the way you are

When I look around me, I love that I am surrounded by friends who each have their own life story. Not one person I know has the same history or shares the same body. We all struggle with different things and we all have things we aren’t happy with. Living with a mastectomy is no different than any other challenge life can throw at us.

Bouncing back from cancer became another hurdle I had to face. For others however, it’s not always that easy. I know it’s incredibly hard to just move on with life after treatment and still feel like the same person – because you are not. So much has changed and a huge part of that is your body. I had gained weight during my treatment and just came out the other side feeling drab – I remember thinking, ‘I look like a fat man for goodness sakes!’ But this is where my thinking and choices came in – life is 10% what actually happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

90-10

Emotionally, the aftermath of cancer is often just as hard as the treatment. You go from fighting off something which took all your focus, to “Ok you’re fine now (minus the boobs) – just get on with life”. It is a really weird space to be in – you do need to give yourself space to grieve for what you’ve lost. I gave myself some time to be flat and process things, but then being more of a ‘glass half full’ person (and you know what’s in my glass), I knew I had to turn it around.

I changed my thinking. I went from focusing on my chest as a negative, to realising that it is just one body part that is difficult. I started to talk with other women about their chests and realised that everywhere, women are having issues with different parts of their bodies every day. I almost took it on as a challenge. Finding ways of making my chest look good in clothing became a real buzz for me and when I found something great, I was really excited. Yes, it was time to use my cancer experience to make a difference.

I love that I have friends with small mosquito bite boobs, big enormous sets, medium sized boobs, boob job boobs, saggy boobs, fixed up boobs, surgery scar boobs, one boobs, and no boobs like me. The things is, no matter what type of breasts you have, everyone is different, everyone has likes and dislikes and everyone makes the decision that is right for them. What I think is the most important thing, is that you embrace the body you have been given and love it no matter what. Self- confidence makes a huge difference about how you feel. Once you start to love yourself and feel you are beautiful, you will be much happier on the inside. And yes, beauty really does start on the inside!

Whatever boobs you have girls, love them and be proud of them. And for those of us who have chosen to stay breastless, love those battle scars –

Love and be proud of who you are!

Today I want to share with you one style of top which I wear that always feels comfortable and makes me feel beautiful. Portmans regularly do floral tops which sit off the body and don’t hug the chest. The pattern distracts from the chest area and they mostly don’t have a huge gaping area where breasts would sit. Here are a few of my Portmans favourites and here is the link to one of many tops that I think would be great and are available to purchase at Portmans right now. Oh and they regularly do some sort of sale or promotion so it’s always good to sign up for their newsletters and wait for the deal.