"The new friendship I have with my body!" Ellie's Story

A year ago I didn't want to skinny Dip because I might catch cold and i don't get sick pay, at least thats the reason i told myself and at the time i believed it 100%. When I was invited to take part in Happy In My Skin by someone I know, trust and love something clicked for me and I saw all the excuses I used around the relationship I had with my body. Bottom line, I hadn't wanted anyone to see me naked. I was in a hate hate relationship with my body.

Taking part in Happy In My Skin has changed my quality of life.

I have looked at my naked self in the mirror and not hated it. This has NEVER happened before.

As I walked down to the beach with all the other ladies my legs were like jelly if jelly was really heavy, I felt as though I was walking towards an actual nightmare. When I got out to sea and was safe under the cover of the waves, I turned to look at the woman wading in behind me. It was the most beautiful and inspiring thing I have ever seen. Every inch of every body was beautiful. I had to accept that I was not the exception, that we were all beautiful. I have never felt as free as I did as a marched out of that sea. (I feel like it was a very specific sea; that sea, not the sea).

I feel lighter.

I feel like my body was an enemy of many years. But an abstract enemy, an enemy for no particular reason. I have now met by body properly and have to admit that we've got a lot in common.

It's the beginning of a beautiful friendship.