{"id":27333,"date":"2024-10-17T12:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T06:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/?p=27333"},"modified":"2024-11-07T09:36:18","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T04:06:18","slug":"loving-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/loving-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Loving Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Aashi-IP-Oct-Gender-Loving-Yourself-Recording.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><sup><em>Listen to a recording of the poem read out by the poet.<\/em><br><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What does it mean to love yourself<br>when all you\u2019ve been taught is to hate<br>every scar, every pimple, every mark<br>like your body is a botched painting of no value?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does it mean to be yourself<br>when the world is constantly telling you to change<br>your lips, your breasts, your hips<br>like you\u2019re a broken machine that needs to be fixed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does it mean to take up space<br>when all you know is how to shrink<br>your arms, your waist, your thighs<br>like you\u2019re a candle, burning up to be someone else\u2019s light?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does it mean to smile at the mirror<br>when your perception\u2019s warped by impossible standards<br>that deem you ugly, imperfect, worthless<br>like you\u2019re a thing to be sold in the market, to be used and discarded?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why are we taught to lick knives to feel loved<br>when we can feed ourselves kindness on a silver plate?<br>Why are we taught to run into someone else\u2019s arms<br>when we can hold ourselves on every bad day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We carve strangers\u2019 words onto our skin<br>like tattoos to be flaunted while hiding away<br>everything that we are from within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We listen to a thousand cruel voices until they become our own.<br>They replay in our heads, a broken record stuck on a single note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We play all the perfect roles<br>until the world\u2019s cruelty seeps into our bones<br>and before we know it, we are just puppets<br>dancing to someone else\u2019s tunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We long to be loved while forgetting we are enough.<br>It\u2019s a tragedy that we need someone else\u2019s approval to be happy.<br>Why can\u2019t we find our voice<br>and scream over all the noise?<br>Why can\u2019t we stand up against society\u2019s rules<br>that tell us how much weight to lose?<br>Why can\u2019t we just choose ourselves over everyone else<br>and walk away from everything that causes us pain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Life\u2019s too short to be wasted hiding away<br>and being ashamed of what people will say.<br>So, wear that dress and twirl around.<br>Let yourself feel beautiful even when it feels like a lie<br>for confidence is a plant that grows the more you water it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rip apart those magazines,<br>block the \u2018health\u2019 influencer telling you not to eat,<br>abandon your 10-step skincare routine and just breathe.<br>Skip that ad about plastic surgery and let yourself be<br>messy, imperfect, human<br>for chasing ideals is a futile exercise<br>and you are bound to get tired running after it your whole life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Flaunt your freckles and your curves, your wrinkles and your moles<br>Let yourself live freely, for you are whole just the way you are.<br>Wear your smile like an armour against every judgemental remark<br>and let yourself be the love interest of your own story<br>for you deserve all the love that you give out so freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So repeat after me when I say,<br>\u201cI will love myself as I am from this very day<br>and others\u2019 words will never make me doubt my worth<br>for I am enough in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><em>Cover Image: Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@farreal?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Dan Farrell<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/purple-and-white-heart-shaped-stones-qayNP9ccw9E?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We carve strangers\u2019 words onto our skin<br \/>\nlike tattoos to be flaunted while hiding away<br \/>\neverything that we are from within.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":503,"featured_media":27337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3401,4588],"tags":[503,26,4596,1200,4597,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-27333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fiction-poetry","8":"category-gender-and-sexuality","9":"tag-body-image","10":"tag-gender","11":"tag-gender-expectations","12":"tag-gender-norms","13":"tag-self-love-2","14":"tag-sexualities"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/503"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27333"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27342,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27333\/revisions\/27342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}