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Body Comfortable
By Chaitali Dasgupta - 11:55 AM Wednesday 07 December 2005
I am no longer a teenager but when I read articles on and interviews of teenagers, it takes me back to my teenage days. Yes even I can remember the anxiety, the preoccupation with my body…the body that had started to change its shape, size and function. The constant feeling of being conscious about whether I was looking right or not. The 24 hour worry about how can I make my breasts not look too obvious and at the same time let others know that I have got breasts and so I am a woman.
When I think of these now in retrospect I realize how burdensome these thoughts and feelings can be for any teenager. That constant discomfort with your body, your self….
Most of us pass our teenage years worrying about these things. We move into adolescence and then adulthood. But what remains constant is the uncomfortable body. We keep trying to find out ways of making it look ‘good’. Tight clothes, loose clothes, clothes to hide our hips, clothes to make our waists look slimmer, clothes that will hide our dark complexion and those that will highlight our fair complexion… and so on.
The body is so important to us. It is the physical manifestation of our self. If I am not comfortable with my body then how can I be comfortable with my self?
Okay so the growing fashion world has been trying to come up with strategies to help us view our body as much similar as we can to a ‘perfect’ body image. But its all tricks and camouflage techniques. They might make us feel happy when we look at our self in the mirror…that is, happy with our mirror image.
What I am trying to ask is “Do we need specially ‘designed’ and ‘researched’ clothes to make us comfortable with our body and therefore our self? Why do we need this ‘artificial’ surrogate parent?
Here is an incident from my life that I would like to share with all my teenage friends and their parents. It is something that changed my whole attitude and till day I always recollect how it changed my self-confidence and made me free of my discomfort.
I think I was 14 years old when this took place. I was into the craze of wearing T-shirts. But again loose ones owing to the syndrome ‘to show or not to show your breasts!’ I was always a chubby kid and was growing up with a very voluptuous body structure. Coming from an average liberal Indian family, you can guess what the first reaction of my father might have been. My father, who is otherwise a wonderful man, but caught up in the traditional background that he had been brought up in, told my mother not to allow the girls to wear such clothes as they made their breasts very visible.
My mother’s response to this changed my life. My mother told him (which she narrated to me later) “She is a woman, she WILL have breasts…they will always be there even if you cover them with layers of clothes. They are there to stay until of course we plan to amputate them…”
It’s so strange how a parent can make all the difference with just a few words. Suddenly my whole body seemed to be so natural… suddenly it seemed so simple. I am a woman and this is how my body is so why feel uncomfortable with it… I felt FREE.
Posted By Chaitali Dasgupta - 11:55 AM Wednesday 07 December 2005
Comments
I fully endorse the idea of feeling comfortable with one's body shape size and feel. Therein lies the trick in enhancing one's attractivness by concentrating instead on the other attributes of talent and personality of a person. The energy that is wasted on fretting and being uptight with worry and tension can obviously be much better utilised by a mind-shift towards acceptance of 'my body my own'.
This is of course not to advocate anti healthy practices of obesity and ignoring the tenets of exercise and maintenance of the body beautiful.
Posted by
Great article!
Posted by
Chaitali,
It is a great initiative. You are doing a commendable job.
Siddharth
Posted by
Hello Siddharth,
Thanks and welcome to the blog. Looking forward to your inputs and insights in taking forward this initiative :)
Posted by
My breasts are really growing and I like it. What is the problem? Maybe when I am older it will be a problem. They attact attention and some attention is not desired. They also attract attention when I am very happy with the attention. I have fun with it. Being big is good.
Posted by
Hi Janei,
Well it is good to know that you are comfortable with your body. It does not matter if your breasts are big or small. It is all about being comfortable and feeling good about your self and your body no matter what size it is.
Posted by
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SUMANTA SENGUPTAcommented ( 3:58 PM Wednesday 23 July 2008) on
The main thing is kundalini. Do you know who is addyashakti mahamaya and her relationship with muladhara chakra?? Do you ... -
SUMANTA SENGUPTAcommented ( 3:55 PM Wednesday 23 July 2008) on
The main thing is kundalini. Do you know who is addyashakti mahamaya and her relationship with muladhara chakra?? Do you ... -
SAMIRcommented ( 5:46 PM Friday 06 June 2008) on
How do I ? -
criscommented ( 2:10 PM Monday 28 April 2008) on
HOW TRUE IS IT? -
vijaya rajagopalcommented ( 2:20 PM Sunday 16 March 2008) on
how you see the it depends on that the spirituality would like to know more about this subject -
Miekecommented ( 4:57 PM Monday 10 March 2008) on
Dear Aachi, Thanks, found the book but haven't any idea how to order it from them, because it is only ... -
Harbcommented ( 4:00 PM Monday 10 March 2008) on
Aachi, please write at the following email address: harb_singh@yahoo.com
I loved reading this.I'm sure 99% of the teenagers go thru this dilema.Your mother is a great woman and I hope all the other mothers who have young girls would try to make them feel comfortable.I am not saying you should go out of your way and show them the size of your boobs!!!