what helped you during the time you learned to love your body?

14 comments

1. For me it’s been getting older. The older I get the more I accept my body. I use products that make me feel good and make my skin soft. Making healthier choices with food and gradually losing weight has help me also.

2. For me, understanding how important it is for me to feel good about myself, no matter how I look. Realizing everything that would improve in my life if I accepted my body the way it is right now.

3. Once I immigrated to the states and had the freedom to dress freely.

4. Exercise – lifting medium weights that made me feel stronger (mentally and physically)

   Treating myself to nice body products and new underwear under the pretense that I actually did deserve it

   Following more body positive accounts on social media. Girls with real, regular bodies that had the same “flaws” as my body. The kicker is that I could look at their bodies and truly think they were beautiful. I could see how their partners would be obsessed with their curves. I could see how beautiful their lingerie looked on them – but I struggled to copy that across to my own body. The more I watch their posts etc, the more I’m able to see the beauty in my own body. Im not there…. But I’m a hell of a lot closer than I was 12 months ago.

   Reading erotica / smut. Made me feel sexy and want sex

   Watching porn with amateurs that had real bodies (similar to mine) and watching their husbands *adore* their soft tummies etc.

   I just feel like I grew up (80’s child) in a media world of perfection and it’s taken me far too long to feel beautiful in a regular body.

5. staying away from environments that encourage people to complain about their insecurities. i found that whenever i looked for communities that would make me feel good about the way i looked i would just be bombarded with people complaining about it and it never made me feel better–it made me feel worse.

6. exercise. Started at 16, never looked back. I 100% attribute my confidence to that first day I signed up at the Y and 30yrs later, I’m still active and feeling amazing.

7. Practicing gratitude toward my body for all its capabilities. I would thank my way right up my body after stretching and meditating, preferably daily. Thank you feet for moving me forward. Thank you legs for giving me the strength to carry on. Thank you womanhood for my passion and creativity. You get the point and it can change. We carry trauma in our body and connecting my emotional strength to my body parts was healing.

   Exercise — knowing and growing my body’s capabilities. This includes goals so you can see your growth. I really enjoy weightlifting for the building of muscle and strength, but as a supplement to a greater whole including yoga, which I highly recommend for connecting your mind and body. Also, I set a goal that required training and the journey taught me to believe in myself again. Believing in yourself is big.

   Physical touch. I would (and still do) hug myself and give myself the love and affection that I need if I’m struggling or just want a little love.

   If you’re learning to love yourself, know you are loved and deserving of love, and simply know it’s possible to do — because it is. I’m living proof of it.

8. Familiarizing myself with how the average/normal body looks and not using social media/models where peoples job is being pretty as a source. I looked at pictures of bodies or specific parts like genitals because i also felt insecure about that. Seeing so much variety and seeing that what i have is 100% normal and fine made me feel so much better about myself. It might sound weird but i highly recommend doing this. There are sites out there that have pictures like this. Nsfw obviously. I did the same thing with the male body so i dont hold unrealistic standards for my partner either.

   Also realizing that so many famous people everyone wants to look like have done plastic surgery themselves.

9. Shrooms

10. Spending more time naked and natural (no makeup etc), positive affirmations and speaking kindly to myself.

11. I realized that exercising was about toning up and making myself feel better, not lowering my number on the scale. Working out should be a feel-good activity, not punishment for going through ordinary bodily changes.

12. Not compare myself to others and to find things about myself that I love

13. For me its all about the food. I enjoy cooking. If I put on weight I can live with that.

14. Only following body positive accounts, and stoping all negative talk towards myself and only speaking kind words.

    It felt like “lies” at first, but I stuck with it and reworded my brain. It’s really helpful!