Body Neutrality: Don’t Love Or Hate, Accept Your Body
The concept of body neutrality may not go well with many during initial exposure. Haven’t we just learned to love our bodies and be comfortable in our skin?
And Taylor Swift has us all soak in body positivity when she sang,
“Players gonna play, play, play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate (haters gonna hate)
Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
I shake it off, I shake it off.”
But trust me, once you know what body acceptance or neutrality is, every day will give you scope for self-improvement.
You don’t need to be madly in love with your body or hate it. Accept it the way it is and be a better version of yourself.
What Is Body Neutrality?
Body neutrality is the perfect middle ground between loving and hating your body. In 2015, this term started doing rounds, and in 2016, Anne Poirier, a certified coach in “Intuitive Eating and Body Confidence,” made it famous by holding workshops.
She said these workshops or sessions were born as she felt “it’s kind of a long jump to move to body positivity from dissatisfaction.”
This concept emphasizes accepting or adapting your body and believes in letting it “just be.” Further, it says that we don’t need to love our bodies at every moment, and that’s perfectly fine. But we should accept it and instead focus on what we enjoy or our prior commitments.
And the best thing about body neutrality is that it helps you to understand what you can achieve with your body. The focus is always on getting a healthy body rather than one that looks “perfect” according to societal norms.
So, when you perceive your body as a functional vessel, you will be able to acknowledge the scopes for improvements, and you will work on them. And especially people with marginalized body types will find it easy to cope with and improve their physical health with this concept of body acceptance.
Fat Acceptance In Body Neutrality
Fat acceptance is an important aspect of body neutrality. I understand how crucial it is, especially as a person weighing on the higher side of the scale.
To explain further, if you are fat and surrender to toxic body positivity, you may not be able to acknowledge if your body has become less functional as a vessel or not. But with acceptance of your body, you can make some efforts for positive improvements in your body without being bogged down by how it looks now.
However, the concept or movement of fat acceptance is about claiming back the word fat and combating evil practices like fat shaming and fatphobia.
Further, when we talk about fat bodies, they should include fat bodies of all sizes. It’s not the usual XL or XXL. We must acknowledge that being fat is not abnormal and that those extra pounds do not make us look ugly.
That’s fat acceptance!
Body Neutrality Examples
Body neutrality tells you to listen to your body and decide when to sweat it out and when to get cocooned in your own zone. They may call you “zoned-out,” but don’t pay heed.
Another example is eating right or avoiding over-straining your body because you acknowledge it as the vessel for everything you can do. I must also mention that accepting your body as a repository of essential organs will motivate you to make significant changes, and you may actually notice some improvements in your body that you could never imagine.
Having shared these examples, I want to further that body neutrality never means going whimsical in choosing what to do with your body. Mindfulness and acceptance are two essential elements of this concept.
Simply put, accepting your body does not mean making unhealthy choices. Instead, it will guide you in making choices that do not make you feel guilty or fret over your body whenever you wear a dress or step out.
If you know that you are doing what’s good for your body, you will be happier and more confident than ever before.
The Psychology Behind Body Neutrality
Can you find love when it doesn’t exist? No, right?
Similarly, the affirmations of body positivity may sound hollow if you really don’t love your body. On the other hand, body neutrality will tell you that your body is a container and crucial in your life.
Beyond admiration and rejections, it’s simple acceptance and respect. And you cannot do anything wrong with anything that you respect. So, you will make it a point to eat good food, exercise, and get adequate rest.
Delving deeper, isn’t it crude to ask a trans person to love a body they find like a cage assigned at birth? Similarly, a person with disabilities cannot always love their body as that doesn’t allow free movement.
As they accept their bodies, they will find a way to bring changes, improve, and care for them.
Who Can Benefit From Body Neutrality?
Everyone can benefit from body neutrality, which is more helpful for people struggling to appreciate their bodies.
With the acceptance of your body, you will stop finding flaws in it and instead focus on finding and improving its unique abilities.
That weighing scale can’t determine who you are and undermine the manifestation of the singular reality of the universe you hold within.
How To Achieve Body Neutrality?
You may understand that body positivity is toxic and hating the body is evil. Still, it’s not easy to reach the middle ground.
You need patience and a strong will to bring balance to your thoughts about the body. Nevertheless, here are the tips that have helped many, including me, to find acceptance about their bodies.
It Doesn’t Have To be “Body Talk” Always
Being mindful is important if you want to achieve body neutrality. We are often the first to mention when we meet a person after a long, and they have gained or shed weight. But we don’t like it when the same happens to us.
So, when meeting people or attending social gatherings, let’s not talk about one’s height and weight. You never know if that person can hate you for life or develop a negative body image, leading to social anxiety and isolation.
Further, if we find someone discussing these things, we must redirect the conversation and make it about else.
Exercise, But Don’t Punish Your Body
Exercise is essential as your body needs certain movements to get going. Don’t worry if you don’t like the regular gym sessions.
Join dance classes, swim, skate, dance your heart out at home, or do any form of physical activity you enjoy.
But don’t push your body if it feels tired. Movements to keep your body healthy should be fun-filled and not a punishment.
The best form of exercise or activities for attaining body neutrality will be “embodiment activities” or activities that integrate mind and body. Yoga and meditation are the most prominent examples of these.
Work On Your Body-Hating Thoughts
If you have hateful thoughts about your body, try to convert them to neutral. Use body neutrality affirmations to accept the strength of your body.
If you have strong arms, appreciate that, and at the same time, if you find it difficult to bend your knees, don’t feel ashamed, and don’t surrender to overwhelming emotions.
Practice Body Neutral Affirmations
Body neutral affirmations will help you to be more mindful and avert negative thinking. I have curated some affirmations of body neutrality for you.
- “I respect my body.”
- “My body works hard and deserves care.”
- “I need to take care of my body.”
- “My body deserves rest and I will allow it when needed.”
- “I accept my body.”
- “My worth doesn’t depend on my body.”
Read Body Neutrality Books
You can also read body neutrality books to muster information about this concept and own it. I loved “More Than Enough” by Elaine Welteroth and Jessi Kneeland’s “Body Neutral.”
And yes, the first one I read was “Body Neutrality: The Liberating Practice of Accepting Your Body Exactly As It Is” by Ayla Freitas Ghibaudy.
Wear The Clothes You Find Comfortable
Wear clothes that you like in terms of style and comfort. In comfort also, there are two aspects. Firstly, it’s your physical comfort, and secondly, how comfortable you feel emotionally.
Have Food That You Love And Is Good For Your Body
Choose fresh, wholesome, and filling food items for your regular meals. If you like certain flavors or items more, do not completely exclude them from your diet.
If some food items you like cannot be incorporated into your diet for health reasons, get in touch with a dietitian for healthier alternatives.
And cheat meals once in a while are absolutely fine. They work as “feel-good” factors and boost your metabolism.
But whatever you eat, be mindful.
Choose What To See On Social Media
Social media has become such a monster! Specific posts, videos, or images posted on social media can worsen your relationship with your body. Or some may subconsciously affect you to be more conscious about your body.
Unfollow or block those accounts. Trust me. It helps.
What IS HAES Body Neutrality?
HAES, or Health at Every Size, fits well into body neutrality. It says that being thin is not the only requisite for being healthy.
You can follow the strictest diet or do the most rigorous exercise, but your body can never be like anyone else’s. “Idealization” and “standardization” are two of the most disturbing factors where the look of your body gets priorities over your health.
Further, HAES promotes wellness and focuses more on long-lasting effects than just weight loss.
HAES says you can eat the food you like for pleasure and nourishment. It also asks you to do some exercises you love and stop shaming yourself or anyone else for the body you/they have.
Why Is Body Neutrality Important?
Body neutrality is important for finding the right balance about your body and how your behavior, emotion, and thought process revolve around it.
It saves you from the compulsion of every “do it” step you take for your body without considering the consequences and being respectful.
Most importantly, it gives you the charge to choose holistic wellness of the body over its present size and shape.
Body Neutrality Changing Relationships With Food
With eating disorders lurking as one of the major health problems in the world, body neutrality finds it essential to bring a positive change in our relationship with food.
As I have already mentioned a couple of times, this practice encourages “mindful consumption of food.” So, by adapting this practice, you are likely to get inclined toward healthier food and beverage choices.
Also, portion control is important in understanding the relationship between food and body neutrality.
Body Neutrality Vs. Body Positivity
It’s difficult to explain the difference between body positivity and neutrality within such a short span. From the history origin and core beliefs to how they have evolved, they are different and standing at different points of the spectrum.
Body neutrality tells us not to attach high values to the appearance of our body and instead treat and respect it as a vessel with essential functions. It does not matter whether we love or hate them.
We have to respect and accept it and take care of it. Further, in neutrality, long-lasting health and wellness of the body hold maximum importance.
Body positivity, on the other hand, is about being proud of the “flaws” one’s body has and dressing in a way to exude that belief.
Summing Up
The concept or movement of body neutrality is crucial as a major part of global humanity is facing the curse of a negative body image and its worst outcome, eating disorders.
Society, media, and a hell lot of other factors now determine the “ideals” and marginalize people who do not have a body that conforms to those standards.
The concept of body neutrality tries to bring more acceptance and inclusivity in body image so that people learn to respect the body they have. And once that is established, a person’s relationship with food, exercise, and other essential components related to taking care of their body will start getting priority.
Especially people with marginalized bodies, people of color, trans people, and people with disabilities need it the most.
So, let’s wrap on the note it started.You don’t need to love or hate your body; it just needs acceptance.
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written by
sibashree bhattacharya
Sibashree has been into SEO and eCommerce content writing for more than 9 years. She loves reading books and is a huge fan of those over-the-top period dramas. Her favorite niches are fashion, lifestyle, beauty, traveling, relationships, women's interests, and movies. The strength of her writing lies in thorough research backing and an understanding of readers’ pain points.
