There are a lot of efforts being made on behalf of the beauty industry to be more inclusive and accepting of people’s differences. The problem is that even still, you may be bombarded with varying messages that make it hard to love and accept your body. Those messages tell you your body must to look a certain way to be worthy, to be loved, to belong. What doesn’t belong is the belief that you are somehow less because you don’t fit into an impossible mold that was never designed for you in the first place.
However, you are not here to shrink yourself. You are not here to fit into someone else’s expectations. You are here to live, to breathe, to experience, and to take up space. You are here to be you – and part of what that means is accepting your physical body.
Learning to Feel at Home in Your Body
Loving your body doesn’t mean you wake up every day feeling like a goddess. It doesn’t mean you never have moments of doubt. It means you choose, over and over again, to be on your own side. You choose to stop treating yourself like a problem that needs fixing. It means you stop waiting until you are smaller or stronger or tighter to decide you are good enough.
To feel at home in your body, you have to start seeing it as more than something to be looked at. Your body is not an ornament; it is an instrument. It carries you through every moment of your life. It holds your laughter, your tears, your late-night dance parties, your quiet moments of peace. It is yours, and it has been with you through everything.
So how do you accept your body as it is? You start treating your body as you would a friend. You start speaking to it with kindness. You listen to what it needs and you provide that. Accepting your body means you stop punishing it for not being different.
Breaking Free from Comparison
Stop comparing yourself. Comparison steals your joy and your confidence. It convinces you that someone else’s beauty takes away from your own. But it doesn’t. There is no competition. There is no ranking system. There is no finish line where someone declares, “You win at having the best body.”
One major drawback of comparison is that it hinders your ability to see yourself clearly. If you forget yourself, and you can no longer see who you are; how smart and capable you are, how funny and quick witted you are, how attractive you already are – you open the door for other negative emotions like self-loathing, self-abandonment and depression.
Every single person you have ever compared yourself to has their own insecurities. They have their own struggles, and moments where they look in mirror and wonder if they are enough. The reality is, people you admire – even the ones who seem effortlessly confident – they aren’t perfect. They might have just learned that perfection is a myth and confidence comes from embracing yourself as you are.
The only way to stop comparing yourself is to start focusing on you. On what makes you feel good, what makes you feel strong, what makes you feel alive. When you’re too busy loving your own life, you don’t have time to measure it against someone else’s.
Respecting and Caring for Your Body – On Your Terms
Loving your body begins with the thoughts you allow and where you focus your attention, and it continues when you take appropriate action. It’s about treating yourself with the care and respect you deserve. It’s about choosing to acknowledge that you are already worthy.
Move your body in ways that feel good. Not as punishment, not as a way to earn food, but as a way to celebrate what your body can do. Dance, stretch, hike, swim, lift, run – find movement that brings you joy.
Eat food that nourishes you. Figure out what foods are right for your body feel. Eat for nourishment and to feel energized. Enjoy your food. Stop moralizing it. Food is not the enemy; you need it to survive.
Rest. Your body is not a machine. It doesn’t exist to be productive 24/7. Give it sleep, give it breaks, give it quiet moments where it can just be.
Wear what makes you feel powerful. Forget the rules. Forget what’s “flattering.” Wear things that make you feel like the truest version of yourself.
Changing the Way You See Yourself
Here’s a wild idea: What if you stopped looking at yourself through the lens of pointing out everything that’s ‘wrong’ with you, and started seeing yourself through the lens of appreciation? What if, instead of standing in front of the mirror and zooming in on the things you wish were different, you started recognizing the beauty that’s already there?
Try this:
- The next time you catch yourself criticizing your body, pause. Ask yourself, “Would I say this to my best friend?” If the answer is no, then don’t say it to yourself.
I was recently introduced to the concept of having a conversation with your body. If you say mean things to your body, your belly, your thighs – imagine what those body parts would say back to you. They’ve worked really hard to be there for you every moment until this point, do you really want to tell them they aren’t good enough? Or do you want to thank them for everything that they’ve done for you?
That being said.. - Start focusing on what your body does for you. Your legs carry you. Your arms hold the people you love. Your stomach fills with laughter. Your skin keeps you warm. Your body is doing its best for you every single day.
- Stop waiting. Stop waiting to wear the swimsuit, to go on the trip, to take the picture, to say yes to life. Your body is not the thing holding you back – your thoughts about it are.
The Freedom That Comes With Self-Acceptance
When you stop fighting your body, you make space for freedom to be yourself. You stop sitting out of experiences because you’re worried about how you look. You stop picking yourself apart in pictures and start being in the moment. You stop seeing your worth as something that’s tied to the shape of your body and start recognizing it as something unshakable.
When you start treating yourself with love, it spills over into everything else; your relationships, your confidence, your energy. You start showing up in the world with the kind of presence that says, “I belong here.”
And it’s because you do.
Choosing to Love Yourself – Every Day
Self-love isn’t a one-time decision; it’s a practice. Some days will be easier than others. Some days you might forget how to have compassion for yourself. Some days the old voices and critics will try to creep back in. All that in mind, thank those feelings and challenges for showing up, lovingly let them go, and keep choosing love. Continue to choosing kindness for yourself and keep choosing to be on your own side.
At the end of the day, this is the only body you have. It is the only home you will ever truly live in. Your body deserves your love, your respect, your appreciation.
So, love it wildly – love it fiercely. Love it not because it’s perfect, but because it is yours.
Related Reads: How to Manage Fear and Choose Empowerment, Stop Idealizing People,
Where Insecurities Come, How to Heal Self-Worth and Build Self-Esteem
Resources If you’d like to learn more about accepting and loving your body, check out these links:
- PsychCentral: 5 Ways to Accept Your Body and Why It Matters
- Psychology Today: Why is Self-acceptance So Hard?
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