The power of self love. 

BellyUp's "I am enough" body positive campaign brought together dance students and dear friends from the Bellydance community. Inspired by author/professor/life coach Brene Brown, we wrote an affirmation on the palm of our hand, took a selfie, and agreed to remind ourselves of our self-worth recognizing that our beauty starts on the inside first. These images in the video here initiated some inspiring conversations about body positivity and what it means to each of us. Let's keep the conversation going and remember that body positivity doesn't come from trying to achieve the kind of body the media says is "perfect". It comes from embracing and being kind, loving and respectful to the body we've got.

My Story.

Learning to Bellydance changed my life. Since childhood I've suffered from yo-yo dieting, binge eating and body dysmorphia. I fell prey to diet culture. It's played havoc on my body image and self-esteem as long as I can remember. But when I learned to Bellydance, right from the very first lesson, I can say it was the only time in my life when I was not aware of the aspects of my body that I'd always been ashamed of. And the deeper I got into the dance form, I literally disappeared into this feeling of freedom and self-love that I'd never experienced before. I knew I was on to something powerful, transformative and life-changing. I haven't conquered all these body image demons. I'm still a work in progress. But because of this dance form, and the connection with other like-minded individuals that are part of our BellyUp dance community,

it has given me a purpose to shine a light on these issues, and in doing so, help others and myself to find the strength, the self-love and the self-acceptance that we all long for. I will always work to ensure that BellyUp is a safe, non-judgmental place for women of all shapes, sizes, colours and levels of ability to come and be celebrated. A place where you can embrace your body. Embrace who you fully are. Because our shape and size does not define us. Skinny doesn't automatically equal healthy. And fat doesn't automatically equal unhealthy. Thanks to the fashion/beauty industry, mainstream media and now social media, the cultural beauty ideals that have been created for young girls right on up to aging women, are far from normal.  I believe there needs to be a large scale structural shift that includes institutional, social and cultural changes if body shaming and the perpetuation of harmful beauty ideals are to shift  We need greater diversity in media images across all categories of skin tones, body size, height, facial features, hair textures and so much more. We need to work towards equality in all forms of bodies. Too many of us have spent too many years feeling not enough, or feeling that we're just too much.  I'm here to say that we are all enough. We are all more than enough.

~ Joharah, Artistic Director & Founder, BellyUp ~