Last week I attended an event hosted by MuTu Systems, and it was a brilliant, empowering and emotional morning in Central London in the Lumiere Building. Truth be told I had no idea what I would be letting myself in for, and I certainly didn’t realise I would come away feeling a whole host of emotions concerning how women perceive their body image. Throughout my life I’ve felt ok about my body, never hating it, but never loving it. I’m naturally slim, however my perceptions changed after pregnancy, and I’m sure that many women would say the same. I disliked my tummy, my c-section scar, my protruding hernia and saggy boobs. I also felt that I had piled on the pounds somewhat after eating sweets and chocolate daily at work. It probably took me about a year after having our daughter to return to what I felt was normal. All these feelings I had about my body were amplified when we watched the film “Embrace” which was all about a lady called Taryn Brumfitt who travelled across the world exploring our poor perceptions of body image. I was fairly alarmed watching this that no one had anything positive to say about their body, lots of people hated it, disliked it, hated their wobbly bits, and felt disgusting. “Boobs are not slinky’s” Why do we feel this way? Has society robbed us of loving our body? Has social media body shamed us so much that we can no longer love our body, and everyone perceives an airbrushed model to be the perfect body? Watching that film made me realise that we need to embrace our bodies, there is no perfect, that’s why it’s called “Embrace”. Our bodies have done wonderful things, they’ve raised and fed children, each day they are getting older, and we should embrace that. At the end of the film I don’t think that there was a dry eye in the room after watching how Taryn had travelled the world trying to positively change perception. To help change the negative perception and make our bodies fit for purpose we were introduced to Wendy Powell who set up the company MuTu Systems. The philosophy behind MuTu Systems is to support Mums who want to shift their mummy tummy, heal their pelvic floor and core, feel strong inside and out, and overall provide a positive body confidence. The purpose is to make your body function properly after having a baby, and I can speak from experience having developed a 1cm hernia (although I’m not sure if that was pregnancy related) and a 5cm gap between my stomach muscles (also known as Diastasis Recti which for me is definitely pregnancy related). To help us get to grips with the MuTu System we did some simple pilates exercise, and although it was said to be simple, it was flipping hard. Try pulling up your pelvic floor whilst you exhale. It’s really hard. Although with a lot of practice and concentration it got easier, and I could actually start to feel it work on my poor stomach muscle. Having said that I’m not too sure how effective it was when my daughter was climbing all over me. To end the event we were treated to a light lunch and a MuTu Systems starter pack. I’m already looking to completing the Mutu System course over the next 12 weeks and seeing the impact it has on my body. Watch this space for a blog post coming in early 2018 to see how I got on. Claire x Thank you to Mutu Systems and Wendy Powell for hosting an amazing event, I felt proud to be part of it, and thank you also for looking after my daughter on the day.