The world is so full of judgment that is can sometimes be hard to handle. When we are simply trying our best, most of the time, we feel we cannot reveal our true selves for fear of being misunderstood. We live a life wearing a mask that only a few get to see past. One woman has made it her mission to enable more people to achieve self-love. She posts pictures unashamed of her body, as rightly so.
Sarah’s story of self-love
If you were to scroll through Sarah Nicole Landy’s Instagram feed today, you would see nothing but self-love, body confidence, motivation, and inspirational posts. She is an idol of self-love to thousands of women out there, mothers and not. However, this wasn’t always the case, as Sarah has worked hard to be where she is now regarding her mental health.
The mother of four used to have a negative body image. When she posted on Instagram, she would do her best to hide any features she frowned upon. Thanks to mainstream media making the benchmark for beauty at such a high level. Her followers flocked to her page, blessing her with many compliments, but Sarah knew the truth – and there had been some editing involved.
Sarah’s obsession with being skinny drove her to the point where her mental health was at a serious low point. There was zero self-love in her, so when her followers and fans started complimenting her, she saw the duality behind the fallacy of society’s beauty standards “I was very thin, and sick, stressed and yet everyone congratulated me on how good I looked,” she recalled. “It was a glaring case and eye-opening experience to how much “thin” and “skinny” are idolized. It became a mental battle when I had to healthily regain, but it helped me grasp that skinny wasn’t happy. Skinny was just a different kind of unhealthy for my body.”
The turning point
In every inspirational person, there is a turning point. Something that triggers a realization of what they’ve been doing wrong. In an interview with MNFST magazine, Sarah spoke about her weight loss journey, and how it sculpted her into the woman she is today.
“I had recently lost 100lbs and had a healthy social media following because of it,” said Sarah on her journey of self-love. “But I never really found happiness in my body like I expected weight loss to bring me. Which caused me to have to do a lot of inner work, which spilled over into outer work. Through a few different experiences in sharing, I realized that all this time I felt SO alone in my body. While there was in fact thousands if not millions of women who had the exact same experience. Knowing that changed me, so I wanted to continue to spread that message for others so they could feel less alone as well.”
Read: If Your Husband Can’t Accept Your Body, Throw The Whole Husband Out
Now, Sarah posts every picture unashamed of her true appearance. She no longer hides imperfections because she sees them as perfections. She wishes for more women to be inspired by her journey of self-love. If you are inspired by Sarah, you can continue to be so by following her on Instagram, @thebirdspapaya. She has 2,2 million followers and counting.
Sarah’s advice on self-love
Sarah is fully aware that the journey to self-love is unique to each of us, as we have our own experiences in life. However, she advises her followers to focus on moments of happiness and contentment. “We can’t blanket what self-love means for everyone because we all give and receive love so differently. So listen to yourself in the everyday moments,” says Sarah. “The moments that feel really good and fulfilling — if you pay attention to what they are, you can do more of them. Likewise for the other way around. When you start to see the things that trigger self-hate, you can begin to remove them from your path. Many times, this applies to who you follow and give power to on social media.”
Keep Reading: She uploaded a photo of herself and her husband wearing swimming suits and received heavy criticism for it.
Sources
- “At her heaviest, Sarah Nicole Landry tipped the scales at 224 pounds. The 35-year-old body positivity influencer and creator of the popular blog The Bird’s Papaya and The Papaya Podcast, went viral on Instagram when she decided to reveal what her body really looked like after three large pregnancies and a 100-pound weight loss – loose skin, stretch marks and all!” MNFST Mag. Briony Douglas.
- “Exclusive: Sarah Nicole Landry Of ‘The Birds Papaya’ Discusses Divorce, Self-Love & Motherhood.‘ Moms. Elizabeth Larkin. April 12, 2020
- “This Mom Is Encouraging Everyone To Think About How Body Compliments Can Potentially Be Harmful, And It’s An Important Message For All.” Yahoo. November 22, 2022.