The Moment You Decide to Love Your Body No Matter What Shape It Is

The moment you decide to love your body regardless of its shape or weight is a huge step in your story. It’s a step that many people are not able to take because of the prejudices they’ve picked up about what a body “should” be like.

But…. what should a body be like? Let’s ask ourselves something before judging and destroying our body’s own dignitify: what should a body really be like? Who says so? Fashion of course plays a big role in how we think of our body. The fashion industry tells us what to think.

Our own ideas and interests are perfectly valid, though, and we have a right to them. After all, it is you who will have to decide if you would rather accept your body according to standards written by others or the ones you make. It’s a personal choice, but not always a conscious one.

Love your body: it deserves acceptance, not constant insults

If we accept our body based on external standards, standards that change with the whims of the fashion industry, we will spend our whole lives chained to something we cannot control. However, if you are one of the few who defend their body instead of attacking it, you’ll be on the path towards acceptance.

We don’t treat ourselves with love. Instead, we look at our body very critically like it’s in constant need of “repair.” We always find something about ourselves that’s “not good enough”. And this criticism sometimes turns into cruelty, especially in certain parts of our lives. Adolescence is a big one.

Almost all humans feel the need to be seen and admired. In many cases, the need is limited to the body. So, the body “has to be” a certain way in order to be worthy of being looked at. It identifies us as being unique and special. But t hat same body ends up filled with constant internal struggles. 

Love your body: stop judging it

Thus, our body becomes a battlefield, a true disaster zone. Society teaches us to focus on what we don’t like about our body. You aren’t taught to accept and love your body. No one encourages us to explore it with curiosity instead of evaluating it. We punish our body and don’t even know it.

Therefore, for many people their body turns into a prison cell. Not a home, not a place of wonder and surprise and change. For them it’s a heavy burden to carry. A disadvantage in a competitive, very appearances-focused world.

What if our body is shouting at us and we aren’t listening? “Love me! Take care of me please! Don’t sell me to the highest bidder!” It’s only when we free ourselves of our judgmental lens the world gave us will we be able to trade it for a more friendly, healthier lens.

We need to change our perspective. “Yes, I have cellulite, but I will decide to look at my body with affection and not with disgust.” “Yes, I have a little belly, but instead of going to the gym as punishment I’ll go because I enjoy it.”

Of course, health is the basis of any urgent need for change. Feeling good with our body happens when we take care of it a from a place of acceptance and affection. 

Exercise, go dancing, take care of your body, look at it. It’s all a part of being connected to it. Of discovering how it works. Learning to look at yourself with more kindness is worth it.

There is a huge difference between wanting to “take care” of your body and wanting to punish it. As if it were a temporary shell you’re inhabiting only until you can remodel it. Work on accepting that this is your body, now and forever.  Love your body regardless of its weight or shape because it is the only one you have.