I love the BodyHeart campaign and heard about it through my friend and teacher Terri Cole.

BodyHeart helps to liberate women from their self-punishment prison.

You are photographed with a heart on your favourite body part. The difficulty of choosing a body part which you love and are willing to have photographed and displayed. Wow. 

I so wanted to be involved but I live in Wales in the UK and so couldn’t come to a shoot or anything, when they were kindly offering them to women.

But you can self-submit photographs. Unedited, no make up just beauty and reality.

I chose my back as I see my strength and survivorship as so beautiful.

I love my body; my back as symbolic as some of my heath challenges involved problems with inflammation of my spine.

I love the strength that helped me to live through such difficulties and allows me to now teach other women to stop feeling like just Sick Chicks but instead to see their strengths and live as Trail Blazers.

Living well with pain and illness, every.beautiful.day.

My backbone has allowed me to stand up for what I believe in, change the world and keep hope and faith when all seemed lost.

I am grateful for this strength and for the strength I see in other women around me.

Those who are changing the world everyday whether by activism, working or just by living beautifully and truly. 

Outfit: 

Top from Komodo

Skirt – vintage from a friend. 

Chair – borrow from Grandma’s house. 

Pictures must be black and white and no make-up, hair dressers or editing.

It take courage. 

Actually none of the photograph in my Waist Height projects are edited for anything except brightening ones taken on dull days and so forth. 

I don’t have the skill or the inclination to fuss with photoshop airbrushing. If I look tired or ill it’s because  – shock – I am. And still beautiful. 

Time spent on trying to erase perceived flaws would be better spent sleeping or taking self-care action to love harder and care more deeply for our bodies. Which is most likely to reduce the problem itself. 

Hugest love, and gentle hugs for you and your body. Be it perfect, broken, wonky, hurting, hated, or beloved. It’s your gracious home for today. How will you honour that?