Body Neutrality + What That Even Means
We have been thrown into a culture where so many are telling us to love our bodies. They’re telling us no matter what you think, your body is beautiful! Or they say “Use these affirmations until you love your body and really believe it!”.
Well that’s just not realistic for many of us, is it?
I can’t sit there and say an affirmation over and over till I believe it if I look in the mirror and feel like I’m lying to myself. Even if the outside world sees me differently, I can’t acquire a belief if my eyes show me something different.
If my personal idea of beauty is that this thing or that thing should be one way or another, I can’t immediately look at myself and see something as beautiful if it doesn’t fit the image in my brain just because someone else says that I should.
If you’re someone who has an invisible illness, scars from injuries, limited movement, or physical capabilities, it’s hard to love your body sometimes. It can be incredibly difficult to like or love a body that causes you pain that you can’t escape from. I think there are a million ways that a person is justified in not wanting to celebrate the meat sleeve that was handed to them regardless of how they felt about it.
However, I do believe that there are ways we can come to terms with our bodies and be okay with where our bodies are at.
worthy of all the good things that you want no matter what your personal feelings toward your body are. Your happiness can come from any source that you choose from family and friends to how you show up in the world every day. I know this is still hard because it’s something I have personally struggled with but I promise you, on the days you choose to practice neutrality, you will start to feel better!
For the sake of attention spans (because I know mine is short) I’m going to wrap this up. For now, I thought it was important for you to have an idea of what body neutrality is. However, because marketing messages define body neutrality and positivity so clearly (insert giant eyeball roll here), I’ll have more about liking yourself, in your own way, on your own terms, in the next couple of posts later this week and over the next couple of weeks.