How To Be More Body Positive

Many of us grow up believing that there is a perfect body type that we should all aspire to. Body positivity promotes the idea that there is no perfect body type – and that you should take pride in your body no matter what shape and size you are. 

Learning to be more comfortable in our skin can be essential for developing confidence in ourselves. This confidence can help us to do everything from pursuing a love interest to chasing career goals. While some people are prepared to change their body to become more comfortable with it – either through diet and exercise or through cosmetic surgery – not everyone is able to do this. Rather than become depressed and anxious over the fact that you cannot change your body, body positivity encourages you to love your body for what it is.

But just how can you develop body positivity?

Below are just a few tips on how to be more body positive. 

Surround yourself with the right people

In order to become more body positive, it helps to surround yourself with people that make you feel comfortable about who you are. Don’t hang around with people that make snide remarks about your size. These types of people are likely to feed your negative thoughts. Instead, try to spend time with people that make you feel happy about yourself. 

Talk to yourself as you would talk to your close friends

Often it’s not what other people say to us that make us anxious about our size. Most of our insecurities come from our own self-criticisms. 

Start talking to yourself as you would one of your dearest friends. You wouldn’t say mean things to a friend about the way they look – you would offer positive feedback and build them up where possible. Stop bullying yourself and start giving yourself more compliments. 

Wear clothes that make you feel comfortable and happy

You should never feel pressured to wear a certain type of clothing. If it isn’t comfortable and doesn’t personally make you feel good about yourself, don’t wear it. 

Nowadays, there’s much less pressure for all women to adopt specific fashion trends. Plus size fashion has invented new rules for those that are larger. Every body shape has its own perks – try to find clothing that is made for your body shape and that shows off your best assets.

Throw away your scales

Many of us get fixated with how much we weigh. In truth, your weight isn’t always a good indicator to how healthy you are – bones and muscles make up a big percentage of our weight. Also, your weight isn’t something that anyone else sees – it’s simply another way of making yourself feel bad about your body.

By throwing away your scale, you can free yourself from the daily ritual of measuring your weight, giving yourself one less thing to berate yourself over. Focus on your outward appearance rather than judging yourself by your weight.

Stop viewing differences as ‘flaws’

The parts of us that make us different are essential to making us unique. If everyone had the same body, it would be a pretty boring world. Start embracing your differences as ‘quirks’ rather than ‘flaws’. 

Nowadays, there are models that are amputees, models that have vitiligo and models that are classed as  little people. These people have embraced their differences and used them to their advantage. There’s nothing to stop you doing the same. That may not necessarily mean pursuing a career as a model, but may simply involve flaunting the things that make us different instead of trying to conceal them. 

Be more skeptic of images in the media

So much of what we see in magazines, on TV and on Instagram is an illusion. The right angle, the right lighting, the right make-up and the right amount of Photoshop wizardry can make a person look unrecognizable compared to how they may look first thing in the morning when they stand in front of the mirror. 

You can either choose to try to create this illusion yourself through makeup and technology, or you can reject this idea of heavily feigned beauty and be comfortable with how you naturally look. The latter option is a lot less effort – you’ll save yourself huge amounts of time each week that could be poured into more productive ventures.

While you shouldn’t focus on the ‘perfect image’ the media portrays, you should put some effort into your appearance. Doing this is particularly important if you’re satisfied with your image. Exercising and eating healthily are the best ways to create and maintain a healthy-looking and positive body and image. Some also consider using other body sculpting techniques to create their desired appearance. But you need to maintain the body you’ve invested so much in. For example, it helps to learn how to maintain your CoolSculpting® results if you use this procedure to improve your appearance.