Many of us have body insecurities that render us uncomfortable all summer long.
When beach-body or bikini season comes around, lots of us hide under our beach coverups and baggy T-shirts.
One woman, Sarah Sapora, knows that feeling all too well.
Sarah was 13 when she stopped wearing bikinis. Now, Sarah is 38 and ready to conquer the world in a new skimpy bathing suit.
For 25 years, Sarah explains, she didn't feel free in her body — something so many of us understand.
You might think that Sarah is stick-thin now, but she isn't, and she's proud of that fact. Sarah is actually a size 22.
Although Sarah isn't what the media considers an appropriate size for a bikini, she's fighting the stigma and proving that every body is a bikini body — no matter the size.
Read on to find out more about this incredibly inspiring woman and her message for the world.
[H/T Women's Health]
Sarah hadn't worn a bikini since she was 13… until now.
At age 38, Sarah finally put a bikini back on for a stunning and meaningful photo shoot.
She wrote:
This was an absolute first for me as an adult.
Are you ready for the picture flood?
Because I am so damn proud… The last time I wore a low-rise bikini, I was thirteen years old at "fat camp."
It wasn’t even mine; I borrowed it from a counselor and wore it just long enough to lay on a towel by the tennis court during rest period for 45 minutes that single summer day.
Someone snapped a photo of it. I remember seeing it once, but that's it… It's taken me 25 years to feel that free in my body again.
This is my new Lane Bryant bikini. The kind of bikini I never thought I would wear.
And now here I am. A size 22.
And more comfortable, more balanced, and more joyful than I have been in my entire life.
We get one turn around this dance floor, folks.
There comes a time in your life when you realize it's time to play the music YOU like, and dance like nobody's watching.
Or like everyone is watching. Except if anyone is heckling, you don't care because you're too busy moving and shaking and living and laughing to be noticed.
In a follow-up post, she wrote:
Want to know something?
Sit down for this, because this overweight, 38-year-old woman is about to drop a truth bomb on you. Ready?
That hiding?
That anxiety you feel about who you are and what you look like?
That fear you have that people are looking and going to laugh at you for dreaming big, being bold, or coloring outside the lines?
It's bananas.
When you “play small” in your life, nobody wins. Least of all you.
Have you ever heard that expression? In the world of personal growth (a place I am dipping my toes in as a plus size wellness blogger) it's a Marianne Williamson expression that explains how many of us shrug off our true desire, our true nature, to maintain security, control, and comfort.
How we ignore what we really want so as not to rock our own boat, or the boats in the water near us.
Rock the damn boat.
Break your mold.
Stop shrugging your True North off.
Step in.
Big and bold.
It's time!!
With one more photo, she explained:
Wearing this Lane Bryant bikini took me far out of my comfort zone.
But that's the thing about feeling free.
Once you REALLY start to live that — once you feel it — your comfort can't be contained into any single zone.
It’s in the air. It’s in the way you breathe. There is less fear and more room to dance in the truth of who, and what, we are.
I feel this all the time. Freedom becomes your baseline.
And you stop worrying about stuff like your "visible belly line" or stretch marks or stuff that jiggles because your sense of self is born in your beating heart. And your breath.
And as long as you have both of those you can always come back to the single most important tool for happiness you have in your life.
Love.
It's all about love.
This beautiful woman is preaching a wonderful message: Not only should you be nice to others about their weight and appearance, you should treat yourself the same way.
If you think everyone should try to love their bodies and strive for confidence, please SHARE this article with your friends and family!
