Why This Woman Wrote A Love Letter To Her Thighs

This article originally appeared on Health. 

Most people have features they’d rather not flaunt on social media—and for many of us, that feature is our thighs. We feel pressure to tone them up, or whittle them down, or else hide them away. That’s precisely why Instagrammer @shastavibes decided to write a love letter to the upper halves of her legs.

Most of her page is filled with impressive yoga poses and sequences, but on Friday @shastavibes posted something a full-body selfie: Clad in a black leotard with bare legs, she smiles confidently.

“Dear Thighs,” she wrote in the caption, “I’m in love with you, every inch, every lump, all the way up from my knees to my rump. You may not be slender, or tanned, or smooth, but you’re up for the challenge when I start to move. You power through squats, lunges, and stairs, and you don’t seem to mind when some people glare.”

The yogi goes on to explain that she’s been working on body acceptance and self-love: “Each day I am learning that my self-worth is based less on what others think and more on how I feel,” she wrote. “And lately, I feel really good.”

Subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest in hair, beauty, style and celebrity news.

Her post is a perfect reminder that our bodies don’t exist to be pretty for others to look at. Our bodies—including those so-called “problem areas”—help us power through the workouts that keep us healthy, both physically and mentally; not to mention almost everything else we do in our lives.

“My body is a method of accomplishing day to day things and that’s it,” @shastavibes pointed out. “So far it’s doing a damn good job. In fact, it rarely lets me down. So for that reason alone, I should be completely in love with it.”

She concluded her post by expressing her gratitude. “[To] my thighs and all my other perfectly strong and functional body parts, thank you for getting shit done.”

@shastavibes: We’re officially adopting this as our new mantra.