Stop Apologizing for your Hairy Legs
and start embracing your natural self —without apology!
BODY NEUTRALITY
I’m sure you’ve heard the term BODY POSITIVITY at some point in your life. I want to share the concept of BODY NEUTRALITY and what it means to accept your body. Let’s start off with your past. If you’re comparing yourself to what you looked like in high school, college, some period in your life where you felt you looked your best, you will always come up losing. Most of us advocate not judging others based on their appearance but are at the same time being overly judgmental of our own appearance. I challenge you to look at yourself. Really look at yourself and examine your body with cool observance where you feel neither good or bad. Instead of positive self-affirmations try these neutral affirmations instead:
I accept my body as it is.
How can I do good for my body today?
My body deserves kindness.
I am grateful for my body because it does so much for me.
All bodies are different and it’s okay.
It’s okay to prefer positive affirmations! Neutral or positive affirmations can be done when you look in the mirror, at work, while working out, or driving. Both can be useful to have more self awareness and acceptance. Here a few examples:
I love my body.
I am perfect as I am now.
I am happy with how I look.
I am proud of my body.
Adopting a body neutral or body positive representation of yourself sometimes calls for a bit of courage. Instead of taking selfies with the angle pointed down and high or with filters and airbrushing, share a photo of yourself unfiltered, not staged, natural and doing something you love.
Forcing or strongly suggesting others to be positive all the time can have a negative effect. Telling someone with an eating disorder or body dysmorphic disorder that they should love themselves and their body may be well-intended advice. However, you’re also dismissing their feelings and asking them to basically shove those deep inside to be replaced by shallow feelings of confidence. To not have your feelings validated or respected makes life harder to deal with and increases anxiety, depression and unhealthy behaviors.
So what’s so great about being body neutral? It’s giving you realistic expectations of yourself. You’re not setting yourself up for failure or disappointment for not obtaining out of this world weight loss or other personal goals. It allows you to reflect upon why you have good or bad feelings associated with your body parts or as a whole. It’s throwing out the societal beauty standards and ideals and writing your own book on what the ideal body for YOU is. If you can take the good and bad out of how you see yourself you’ll have more time and energy to focus on creating your own story and appreciating the beauty and good in the world and in others. By ripping away unhelpful thoughts regarding your appearance, you’re untethering yourself from having your personal happiness be attached to it.
So to sum it up…To my clients I say stop apologizing for not shaving your legs! Don’t apologize or feel self-conscious about body hair, dry skin, messy hair, feet, or whatever you believe gives your body value or takes away from it. I’m not judging you. You are your personality and actions and your body is a body.
