It is the movement that is helping women free the nipple, helping those with bodies of varying sizes feel free in their own skin. There are many forms of empowerment, but “body positivity,” also called “BoPo,” is one that applies to every single human being on this planet. To love yourself for who you are is such a powerful frame of mind – and it is something that every person should adopt.
Sure, the Body Positive Movement might be a buzz phrase, and you might think it is all bunk. I will have you know that there is more to it than simply sharing honest (#nofilter) pics on social media and #bodypositive stories. Beyond the honesty, there some things you should know about the body positivity movement.
1. Body Positivity will change your life
I would know. When I was younger, I hated everything about my physical attributes. My half-smile. The shape of my eyes. My thin hair. The rolls of my stomach, wide hips, and large thighs. I needed braces as a kid, too, and even though my teeth are now straight, I have always been conscious of my smile.
I developed an eating disorder that was a roller coaster from binge eating, exercise bulimia, anorexia nervosa, orthorexia, and beyond. Without body positivity, I would have died. Without developing a sense of love and reverence for this body, I would have stayed sick and depressed and incapable of doing the things I love.
But I am not the only one out there with a body positive story. There are millions of people speaking about how loving themselves, no matter their shape, size, or handicaps. You see these stories in women simply being happy about their thighs touching, or their face looking fuller and healthier after overcoming extreme weight loss.
You see it in the larger yogis, the disabled dancers, and those with various illnesses and handicaps living life to the fullest. Once you love your body, you love your life.
More: 10 Personal Flaws You Need to Embrace
2. You will no longer bully yourself
Once you accept that your body is indeed something to cherish and nurture, those voices and thoughts that tell you that you are not good enough become unheard whispers in the wind. Instead of standing in front of the mirror and picking out all the things about your body that you dislike, you see only the things that make you fabulous.
And while you might be covered in stretch marks, scars, cellulite, and other things not technically viewed as beautiful by the media, you no longer see it as something worth picking yourself apart over.
Body positivity is so liberating. But because those who do not understand the movement can see this as being smug, allow me to introduce a common misconception:
3. Body Positivity influencers are not seeking your adulation
The whole point of the body positive movement is that the people who are promoting it are not posing in their underwear for likes on social media. They are not starving themselves for you to love. They do not need it.
Thin people can be body positive. So can heavy people. Disabled people too. ANYONE can be body positive, because loving yourself makes you feel good. Natural sizes. Natural beauty. Others do not have to like it, but what do their opinions matter anyway?
4. Yes, it is hard
Humans are the type of creatures that want to see negative traits before anything good. It takes time to understand what is right for you and your body. Plus, you have to fight the programmed ideas in your head that have been subliminally planted inside your psyche since your eyes first saw Barbie dolls and magazine models.
But once you start accepting your body and all its little quirks, the challenge is so incredibly worth it. Your eyes open up to something so raw, so real, that you realize that BoPo is much more than the skin. You become infinitely more accepting of, well, everything and everyone.
More: How to Turn Your Post-Baby Body Hate into New-Body Love
5. Anyone can be body positive
Yes, even you. The Body Positive Movement needs everyone’s voice, whether you are male, female, LBGTQ+, handicapped, young, old, scared, scarred, thick or thin. If you have a body, you have a reason to be more body positive. The journey of self-love and acceptance begins within yourself, within the body through which you experience this world.
Body positivity is so worth it.1