Creating a Culture of Body Appreciation
In a world where bodies are only seen and valued for how they look, how can you flip the script and give your body appreciation?
Three terms have come up around the view of bodies recently body negativity, body positivity, and body neutrality. Body negativity is a focus on beauty, weight, and the ways our bodies do not measure up to our or society's body standards. Body positivity is a focus on full acceptance of our body being beautiful and pushing to expand society's views on what beauty is. Body neutrality is not focused on what is considered beautiful and accepting but on an overall acceptance of bodies and what bodies do for us. I am going to focus this blog on body neutrality. We are going to spend time talking about how to recognize our body's strengths and what it does for us. I am going to use the same formula I use for couples’ culture of appreciation, so if you have done this skill you will be ahead and we will be tweaking it for our bodies.
Start by defining a mantra around what body appreciation means for you. Here is a list of 52 options I found from various places online. If one does not feel right for you please search the web or your own heart and determine what works for you. Create a statement about how you want to feel about and appreciate your body.
I will respect my body.
I am grateful to have a body.
I appreciate my body and what it does for me.
My body is the least interesting thing about me.
My body works hard and deserves compassion.
My body deserves to be taken care of.
I am more concerned with progress over perfection.
My relationship with my body is no one's business but my own.
My body is not an object to be looked at and evaluated.
I recognize my body’s incredible ability to support me in daily life.
I choose to prioritize my well-being no matter how I feel about my body.
My body is a tool for living my life, not an object to be judged.
My body is resilient and adaptable.
Focusing on my passions brings me great joy
I am deserving of respect.
My body supports me in everything I do.
I am more than my body.
I am grateful for my ability to think creatively.
My body is an integral part of my story.
I respect my body, even on challenging days.
I deserve care and kindness.
I am worthy of love and respect, no matter my appearance.
I deserve to take up space.
I celebrate my body’s ability to heal from illness.
I am grateful for my ability to hug my child.
I am thankful for my creativity and ability to make beautiful artwork.
I value connection with others over shared experiences, meaningful conversation, and compassion for each other.
My body enables me to laugh and share joy.
I am thankful for my ability to dance.
I cherish my body for letting me explore the world.
I appreciate my body’s strength to carry my 50 lb dog when he is injured.
My mind allows me to learn and grow.
I am grateful for my body’s ability to feed my newborn.
My body lets me experience life’s simple pleasures.
I am thankful for my perseverance to help accomplish milestones in my career.
I appreciate my body for carrying me through tough times.
I’m grateful for my increased mobility after my back injury.
I cherish my ability to communicate with friends and family.
My legs allow me to explore new hiking trails.
I am in awe of the incredible harmony between my lungs, heart, and other organs, working together to keep me alive and thriving.
I am thankful for my ability to listen and empathize.
My body allows me to explore the world’s beauty.
I value my body for its role in connecting with others.
I am thankful for my body’s ability to experience pleasure.
I appreciate my body for the strength it provides.
My body enables me to share love and kindness.
I cherish my body’s role in my overall well-being.
I am grateful for my ability to learn to play the guitar.
I value my mind for its role in my spiritual journey.
My tenacity allows me to pursue my passions.
My body is just my body. It’s just one part of who I am.
I am inherently a worthy and lovable person.
2. Be mindful and notice how your body wants to be valued and appreciated. Take a minute and reflect on things your body craves during downtimes, ways you ruminate about caring for yourself, things you intuitively do to care for yourself, and what you consider to be self-care. Here are some examples to pick from or come up with some of your own.
Take a hot bath
Write kind notes to yourself
Go for a walk
Be mindful of comparisons
Buy flowers
Work in the garden
Take time outdoors
Stretch
Read
Create
Go for a drive
Listen to music
Eat good food
Spend time with others
Travel
Plan something fulfilling
Journal
Spend time with furry friends
Volunteer
Watch your favorite movie
Dance
Work out
Play a sport you enjoy
Whatever you want to do to show your body appreciation for showing up and being itself every day.
3. Amplify the positive in your body by not looking for the bad. We get stuck in such a scarcity mindset and identify all of the ways our bodies fail us. We think about age, illness, looks, pain, disability, etc. We have to switch the script and notice daily what it does for us and then amplify those.
What abilities do I have?
How am I resilient?
In what ways was I strong today?
What wins did I have today?
Etc.
❤️❤️❤️ Our bodies do so much that we need to take the time to write this down, list it, or somehow mindfully document the positives each and every day with our bodies.
4. Notice and celebrate intentions and milestones not just final outcomes and successes. We need to set up a plan to celebrate all of the little wins. The little win might be I survived the day, I had a difficult conversation, I climbed the stairs or I got out of bed. We still celebrate the big wins such as a 5K or any other goal but need to take time to have mini celebrations and success parties along the way. Decide how you are going to celebrate the milestones. If you are working towards a big goal then make sure to set those milestone celebrations now.
5. Create a ritual for checking in with yourself and your appreciation plan. Create your plan today and then mark on the calendar to come back in a week or 2 and see how it is working. Check in and see if you are feeling more neutral towards your body, and more focused on what it is doing rather than how it looks or what it is not doing. Make any tweaks or changes to your mantra, routines, celebrations, or timeframes. The next step is to repeat this step in another few weeks. Mark it on your calendar and then check back in asking questions and assessing how your plan is working. You need to continue to repeat this for a lifetime of appreciation towards your body. Maybe the time frame becomes longer than 2 weeks, but assessment keeps us mindful of our goals and motivated to make progress toward those goals.
I hope you find a shift in how you are relating to your body and keep practicing your body appreciation plan.
-Penney