No matter how much I improve my relationship with my body, I still have bad body image days.
And on those days, trying to force myself to be positive and “lovey” towards my body just doesn’t work.
That’s why I love using a body neutrality mindset on bad body image days. Plus if you’re newer or still working on your relationship with your body it can be difficult to try to love your body.
While I love body positivity, it’s not realistic for everyone to get to a positive place on bad days.
So I wanted to share some of my favorite body neutral affirmations to use myself and share with my intuitive eating clients.
My favorite body neutrality affirmations
- My body supports me.
- I appreciate my body can ____________ (walk, run, do things to take care of my family, breathe, etc).
- It’s safe to honor my body’s hunger cues.
- It’s safe to honor my body’s fullness cues.
- I want to take care of my body.
- My body is worthy of being taken care of.
- I’m learning to respect my body.
- My body is worthy of respect.
- I have a body.
- I’m grateful to have a body.
- All bodies are worthy of respect.
- There is no one perfect way for a body to be.
- It’s ok to just let my body be as it is in this moment.
- I am safe in my body.
- All bodies are okay.
- I can decide to accept my body.
- My body is one part of me.
- It’s safe to trust my body.
- I can still respect my body even if I’m having a bad body image day/don’t like my body today.
- Respecting my body is more important to me than obsessing over my body size.
- It’s safe to feel full.
- Trusting my body’s hunger cues is self care.
- I am practicing being kind to my body and myself.
- I don’t have to love my body to respect and take care of my body.
What is body neutrality?
A body neutral approach focuses on learning to respect and understand your body as it is. It’s different from body positivity, which focuses on creating unconditional love for your body.
Personally, I love starting with body neutrality because it’s easy to go from a negative to a neutral relationship with your body.
It’s a longer journey to go from negative to positive, especially after years of dieting and trying to achieve a perfect body. And at least for myself before learning intuitive eating I was always trying to get to perfect health and body appearance through healthy lifestyle changes. I thought I had to change my body and once my body was better I would love my body.
But our relationship with our body is not actually influenced by how our body looks. It’s affected by how we THINK about how our body looks and our beliefs about how a body is supposed to look.
When I’m working with someone who has strong beliefs about how their body should look, when their body doesn’t meet that ideal body it’s very difficult for them to accept and love their body.
So a better place to work is creating a more neutral relationship with their body.
Learn more about learning to respect your body with this body respect podcast episode.
And if you’re curious about trying some positive affirmations I’ve got a post about that for you too.