Your Body is Worth More Than Just How it Looks: How You Can Begin Believing it.

Choosing to love your body is often easier said than done. Maybe you have heard of the body positivity movement, which encourages individuals to love their body regardless of size, shape, skin-tone, gender, physical ability, etc. This movement has helped many people to love themselves and acknowledge their worth regardless of whether or not their body meets society's beauty standards. I have worked with many individuals who wholeheartedly believe in the body positivity message for the people around them, but when I ask them to extend the same compassion to themselves they recoil. For individuals who have a similar response, I recommend taking a step back and starting with what is called body neutrality.

Body image and diet culture are topics that bombard us from an early age and teach us negative messages about how we look and what we need to do to achieve that standard. Just as it took years to ingrain those messages into us, it can often take just as long or longer to truly feel good about our bodies. Body neutrality meets individuals in the middle. Here is an example of how each framework would encourage individuals to challenge their thoughts if they were struggling with how their legs look.

Body Positivity: I love my legs, cellulite, shape, and all. They are beautiful.

Body neutrality: I love that my legs allow me to run and move around. They have carried me to so many places.

Sometimes it can feel unrealistic to start telling yourself that you love a part of yourself that you have spent so many years hating. Body neutrality allows you to break the negative belief down into more manageable pieces. It is a good first step to shifting into a more compassionate mindset. Thinking in this way also allows individuals to recognize that their body is more than just what it looks like. Instead of jumping straight to trying to love everything about our bodies, it encourages us to first learn to accept our bodies, and sometimes even appreciate what our bodies do for us.

Next time you are struggling to love a part of your body, consider what that part of your body does for you, make an effort to appreciate its function, and accept it as it is. With practice, eventually, loving parts of your body might feel a bit more in reach.