The Self Love Series: Meet Jasmine Hunt

theinfluencer
Jul 10, 2020
7 min read

This week we spoke to self-love blogger Jasmine Hunt. Jas, who describes herself as a self-proclaimed book nerd, who is obsessed with yoga, an activist for intersectional feminism and female empowerment started her Instagram as a fitness blogger back in 2016.

After putting her body under so much pressure from over-exercising and constant dieting, Jasmine developed a chronic illness called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). Jasmine continued to model in the lingerie industry, but the pressure made her more and more sick. Jasmine now uses her platform to speak out against the unrealistic beauty standards that are set by society and the importance of radical, unconditional self-love after experiencing the horrendous effects of these standards first-hand.

Jasmine is currently in the process of creating her own line of comfy, empowering underwear and building a sisterhood where all bodies, ethnicities and background are celebrated. We can't wait for this!

We asked Jas how she became so confident on Instagram, and to share some tips for someone wanting to become more confident:

"I used to think I have always been pretty confident on Instagram since I used to post booty pictures on the daily, but I look back now to see that wasn't actually the case. I was posed, edited and looking like someone that deep down wasn't me.

"The idea of posting a photo where you could see my rolls or scars terrified me at the time."

"My journey to self confidence took time and my mindset shifts but honestly, the biggest game changer for me was actually at the start of this year. I just made the decision to stop giving a damn about what people say and I set my 2020 word as authenticity (which I wrote ALL over my 2020 journal!). I wouldn't say that from then on I was super confident - I wasn't. But that was the first step on my confidence journey. That's when I started being more open about my body image issues, why I gave up lingerie modelling and my struggles dealing with mental health and chronic illness. The response was incredible and so supportive because I was finally surrounding myself with the right people."

"For someone wanting to be more confident, I would say to them that it begins with knowing your authentic self. You can't be confident in your true self if you don't know who that is yet. I am not saying you have to have it all figured out (trust me, I don't!), but believe that self-discovery and confidence go hand in hand. Meditation, journaling and yoga were my biggest drivers. They helped me find my peace with my body first - body neutrality. Once I felt at peace, I could listen to my body and mind more and appreciate it for everything it does for me and that's when I started to see a shift in perspective."

"My main aim with Instagram is to spread the messages I believe in and empower women. I want to be what I needed growing up which is someone who showed me that all these things I worry about, stretch marks, cellulite etc, are completely normal. I also want to provide a place where I can amplify the voices of other women who have something to say. I know that I won the genetic lottery being a white female who is a size 8/10 with blonde hair and blue eyes. I know that society deems my body acceptable and there is so many women who don't have that. Society doesn't see them as acceptable or worthy and that breaks my heart. I hope that using my voice will help them see that there are people out there fighting for them too. That’s why I try and speak out about my own body and the way in which I too have these ‘flaws’ and body image worries in the hope that other women feel they are beautiful and don’t need to hide their body away. It deserves to be celebrated!"

Jasmine has been fighting Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome) since 2017 and has had symptoms of Endometriosis since 2014.

"The reason I speak out about my illnesses is because when I first started displaying symptoms, I had no idea what they were. I didn't even know they existed. I have now done significant amounts of reading and learning to understand the better and it has come to my attention that these illnesses are so misunderstood. Some doctors don't even believe that CFS exists despite the medial research showing it does! It took me a very long time to get diagnosed and without that diagnosis, life was a lot harder.

"Before my initial diagnosis, I had to drop out of university (which I have now gone back to now!). The University of Nottingham couldn’t have been less understanding leaving me with a lot of debt and stress which my parents had to pay because I was only 18 with no income at the time and in and out of hospitals. Since the diagnosis, I get taken more seriously and more help is given to me. I moved to the University of Leicester where the help from the disability team has been incredible and I finally feel seen and heard.

"I want other people to be able to feel seen and heard as well as give them something to relate to. Chronic illnesses are scary and you can feel very alone (especially at the start!). I just hope that by speaking out about it, I am helping someone else get through the difficult diagnosis process and inspire them to keep fighting even when it feels like there is no end."

We asked Jas how yoga and spirituality has helped her on her health journey:

"Last November, my health deteriorated badly leaving me bedridden for about 2 months… It was dreadful. I realised that I wasn’t listening to my body and how it felt and instead was trying to push on with life like I was prior to developing ME. I had done a bit of yoga in the past and liked it but in January, I decided to take my health and wellness more seriously.

"I started daily yoga and meditation and have kept it up ever since. The reason I am so obsessed with yoga is because it finally gave me something I could do no matter how bad my ME was. Before, I felt trapped in this cycle of pushing myself too hard and crashing and even took up rowing (which I thought was gentle exercise in a boat… I couldn’t have been more wrong!). Yoga helps stop this cycle! When I need rest, I just chill in child’s pose and relax and when I feel energised, I can do a power flow. It helps me see what my mind and body needs in the moment.

"In regards to spirituality, I have been spiritual for probably the last 5 years but even more so recently. To me, spirituality gives me purpose and guidance. It’s something to turn to when I feel lost. This helped me with my body confidence journey too because it made me realise that we are so much more than our bodies. There is so much more going on and so much more to life than being deemed ‘pretty’ by society. I would never force spirituality on anyone because it’s something you need to explore for yourself to see whether you connect with it but I do share the occasionally thing on my Instagram for those who are on their own spiritual journey."

Jasmine is also a personal trainer, training people to love and exercise their body. We wanted to know if this had an impact on her confidence online:

"I think my personal training background gives a refreshing point of view on body confidence. A lot of personal trainers will preach dieting and training, but you will never see that on my account. I preach exercising because of how good it makes you feel and I see exercise as a form of self-love now. I gave up powerlifting and bodybuilding and turned to yoga and I will never look back as for me, yoga is a form of self love for both my mind and body. There seems to be a stigma that if you are exercising, you must be trying to lose weight. This just shouldn’t be true!! There is so much more to life than losing weight in order to be deemed ‘hot’ by society. You are beautiful as you are and you don’t have to exercise for weight loss.

"If you want to make a shift towards exercising for fun I recommend trying pole dancing – it’s so empowering and honestly so fun! I also recommend the @girltherapy Instagram account for a self-love boogie and yoga to tune into your body."

Some content creators that inspire Jasmine (so you can check them out and become a boss babe too):

Firstly, I have to say that @themeganedit inspires me so much and she definitely helped to kick-start my own body positive journey. In the body posi world, I see a lot of beautiful plus size women and they do inspire me but seeing a girl similar body size to me, helped me relate a lot more. Megan helped me to realise that it’s ok to have insecurities and she taught me to love them.

Secondly, another Megan who inspires me is Megan Jayne Crabbe (@bodyposipanda). I have been reading her book lately and she has opened my eyes into the devastating effects of diet culture and motivates me to speak out about body positivity!

I also have to say that Alex Light (@alexlight_ldn) has the most relatable, inspiring Instagram posts I have ever seen and she inspires a lot of my own content. If you aren’t following her, you need to!!

Finally, we asked Jas how lockdown has affect her motiviation:

"We all deal with it in different ways and for some people, that’s HIIT workouts every day and for some people, it’s re-charging and relaxing. It’s important to do whatever works for you. I actually feel really strongly about the fact that there is so much pressure to come out of lockdown with 5 completed online courses, a 6 pack of abs, 10lbs down and a de-cluttered house. I am now giving anyone who needs to hear this permission to not do (or do!) any of those things because there shouldn’t be any pressure, especially now! We need to tune into ourselves and see what we need. If that means eating a tub of Ben and Jerrys ice cream, then eat the tub of ice cream and don’t you dare feel guilty about it!"