Seeing Stretch Marks As Beautiful

When I've searched online for the term 'stretch marks', most of what has come up has been how to prevent them, how to treat them, how to get rid of them - creams, potions, promises. You'd think millions of people have some kind of skin disease and that it's highly contagious.

What's that about?

Why is there such an overwhelmingly negative view about stretch marks? Why are they often seen as unseemly, unsightly, something that needs to be hidden, gotten rid of; something to be ashamed of? Why is that the general message portrayed?

In a way, the above questions are rhetorical when you submerge them within an industry that makes billions off our insecurities, billions off the constant suggestion that we're not good enough, that our bodies aren't good enough. Oh and here's a cure, here's a treatment, here's how you can make it go away. We love you. Take care.

If the power of suggestion has been such that, over time, some of us (including myself) have learnt to see our stretch marks as problematic, as shameful, then can there be a different power of suggestion that, over time, swings the pendulum the other way?

Can we start to suggest to ourselves that, actually, there's nothing wrong with our stretch marks, and that there was nothing ever wrong with them to start with, with us, with our bodies?

Can we begin now?

These aren't really questions at all, because I believe the answer is yes, to all of them. Do you?

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For months, I wrote and shared love notes in celebration of stretch marks. It was my way of dealing with aspects of the world that tells us that when we have stretch marks, we should despise our skin for it and think our bodies and ourselves less worthy. That's what a quick search on Google told me. That's what numerous articles and videos told me.

So, I started writing love notes, heart bytes, affirmations.

stretch marks are body nomads.

stretch marks are skin hieroglyphs.

I started writing, re-imagining, excavating, re-truthing.

when the body sleeps, some stretchmarks climb over and away from skin. they fly, dip and soar, leaving eloquent trails in the sky. snaking silver, gold. distracting the moon. distracting the moon.

...returning just before eyes open.

The more I wrote, the more I saw.

I believe the script/story can be rewritten about what lots of us have been (mis)told about our stretch marks. Yes, there are treatments - creams and such, and that's certainly an option if that's what one chooses, but another way, another treatment so-to-speak is to start looking at our stretch marks differently, learning/growing to accept and love them as beautiful and sacred --- the more I've written about them, the more I believe that they are; truly are. They are art. An artform. One of the hundreds of amazing things our bodies are capable of doing (for us).

If you're at a place where you don't like your stretch marks, imagine them glistening in the night on a full moon. Imagine the moon can see your stretch marks all the way from where she is, similar to how lights can be seen from a plane at night.

Write notes to yourself that celebrate your stretch marks. Commit to writing one a day for a month and see how it goes. Maybe save a note on your phone's screensaver. Or as your desktop background. Or place one on your fridge. Or your mirror. After a week of notes, you could record yourself saying them all and listen to that every day. Same for a month's worth of notes.

The narrative can be rewritten.

If we can start to see our stretch marks in a different light, what other parts of our bodies can we start to see differently and learn to celebrate/appreciate?