Being body positive is a trending buzz phrase, but what does it mean? You might hear this and think, yes, I do this, or yes, this is important, but do you truly apply it to your own life?
It is important to learn about body positive quotes, practice them in your daily life, and believe them as your truth.
What does it mean to be body positive?
The main idea here, is acceptance. The body-positive movement seeks to promote a positive and healthy acceptance of one’s body despite whatever social or cultural mold a person once thought they had to fill to be considered beautiful.
Elements that this movement works to normalize are:
- Body size
- Body shape
- Skin tone and texture
- Gender
- Physical strength
- Aesthetic beauty
On a quest to challenge traditional and present-day beauty standards as myths, crusaders for body positivity teach society that everyone deserves to have a positive body image, period, not in spite of, not even though, but period.
Why is this cultural movement significant?
Self-acceptance is so desirable yet highly challenging for some people. There is so much power in loving who you are and the skin you are in, but not everyone can simply do that. This movement acts as a support system for people whose inner voice is not as positive as they deserve it to be.
Younger children
When kids are young, they tend to be unfiltered; while this can be beneficial in some regard, in other ways, it can lead to emotional problems for their whole life. Playground bullying and classroom fodder used to be something that was brushed aside and chalked up to kids being kids, but with all that we know today about how much words and actions at that age set these young children up for who they will be as adults, attention is being paid.
When a young kid has something about their physical appearance brought to their attention in a negative way, it can be jarring. From a young age, that child will now attach whatever label was given to them to themselves, which undoubtedly will shape their body image. At the same time, you will never be able to control how other kids speak to your child or how you were spoken to as a child. You can combat those words inside your own home by instilling body-positive practices into your daily routine and making these conversations familiar.
Teens and young adults
When kids get to be a certain age, you can no longer reason away some of the things they say with phrases like ‘oh, they didn’t know any better.’ Once the teen and young adult years hit, there needs to be some accountability placed on the fact that we are all responsible for our own words and actions.
This is also a stage of life where the devil of comparison really starts to be present. Kids compare their developing bodies to one another, their athletic talents or lack thereof, and their body image issues impede their ability to cultivate self-love.
This is an incredible opportunity to turn that all around. Make body positivity more trendy than body shaming. Encourage kids and young adults to lift each other up and promote self-acceptance rather than comparing themselves to one another, or even worse, to celebrities and social media icons.
Celebrating the elements that make us all uniquely ourselves is a huge part of body positivity because it destroys the suggestion that there is one singular standard to aspire to.
Adults
We would all like to hope that once we get into and past our 30’s, 40’s, and beyond, these things simply go away, and the insecurities of the younger self disappear. Unfortunately, that is not true for everyone. These life stages are full of transitions that can affect body image greatly. Things like:
- Pregnancy and motherhood
- Adult-onset acne
- Loss of muscle mass and body tone
- Changes in hair patterns and growth
- Media promotion of youth-preserving treatments
Body positivity is not something that is entirely organic; it needs to be cultivated and nurtured to be a part of our lives. The good news is that as an adult with a lot of life and lessons behind you, you can work on your body image armed with the knowledge of how little it matters how the world perceives you and how much greater it feels to work on your body positivity each day.
Body positive quotes
So how can you get there? Finding quotes that speak to you on a deep and personal level and adopting them as personal mantras for your whole life is a great way to improve your self-esteem and continuously feel better about yourself.
Find inspiration to raise your self-esteem
Sometimes we need a little nudge, and thankfully with the rise of the body positivity movement, people like Megan Jayne Crabbe have emerged on the scene to encourage and inspire body confidence in people of all shapes, sizes, genders, and races.
“Hating our bodies is something that we learn, and it sure as hell is something that we can unlearn” – Megan Jayne Crabbe.
This is one of the most profound body-positive quotes because it is impactful and also implements a call to action. It reminds us that maybe it is not our fault that our self-esteem has suffered so significantly. Still, we can achieve body acceptance despite past lessons and negativity through body positivity and self-love.
Examples of body positivity quotes
Here are a few phrases and powerful words that you can look to when you are seeking to develop what you need for your own self-love and acceptance. Work on repeating these to yourself on a daily basis.
My body is:
- Ample
- A sacred body
- Healthy
- Strong
- Unapologetically itself
- Worthy
I deserve to:
- Love myself
- Combat my body issues
- Feel beautiful in my own skin
- Dress in ways that make me feel beautiful
- Use enhancements like makeup and hair dye, or not at all
- View weight loss as a vehicle of health, not beauty
As your own human being, you get the privilege of constructing quotes that stimulate positivity and that are unique to yourself.
Adding more self-love to your life
Now it’s time to get to work. How can you make this movement, your movement? This does not mean adopting a so-called wildly successful diet and attempting to chase beauty and lose weight. Instead, it is crucial to recognize that doing the work from the inside out is the only key to a sustainable shift in how you perceive your own standard of beauty and the notion of it in general.
Use the right words
These body positivity quotes are all about the word choices. Speak to your body softly and with the respect that you deserve. While society certainly influences our perceptions and feelings, the more time you spend criticizing yourself, the more time you will have to spend developing real happiness with yourself.
It may also be helpful to remove certain words from your personal vocabulary as a rule. Comments that are not positive or productive should be taken out of your self-talk rotation because not only will they halt your progress. They will counteract it and keep you on the same hamster wheel you are trying to get off of. Pay attention to the way in which specific words land with you. If they generate negative feelings or emotions, they’re gone. It is perfectly acceptable to create a standard of speaking for yourself that leaves no room for toxicity or self-sabotage.
Lift the conditions
Conditions and excuses can hinder progress and be a self-destructive diversion. Do not make body acceptance conditional on things like a number on a scale, a size on clothing tags, or how you look compared to other people.
Pay attention to progress
Celebrate the little victories. Maybe you have been a slave to a particular way of eating because you thought it was the only way to lose the weight you thought you needed to and instead have started to shift your style of eating to be more rooted in being healthy rather than being thin. This is something to celebrate, and the new perspective that you will develop from the inside out will reflect that.
How to use body positivity quotes
Here are a few suggestions of ways to almost effortlessly add this into your daily routine to help you along your journey.
- Keep sticky notes on your bathroom mirror with quotes and words that affirm you
- Create a habit of daily journaling
- Change the wallpaper on your phone or laptop to something related to this movement
- Switch up your social media post and follows to include quotes and individuals who support this movement
The more you make this feel natural, the more natural it will become. You will begin to feel less and less like you are forcing the issue and more and more like you are gaining energy from its lessons.
Benefits of Body Positivity
If you have not already been convinced that there is so much to gain from working on improving your relationship with your body and your own standard of beauty, here are a few added benefits to consider.
1. Stability
You are more likely to feel mentally and emotionally stable if you have embraced your own body and body parts. Using body positivity quotes is, in truth, a way to condition your mind and heart to genuinely believe the words you are saying and live them daily. Life will always have ebbs and flows that our emotions will react to, but we do have some control over the frequency and triggers that create this disruption to our peace.
2. Self-awareness
Do not be surprised if you begin to notice things you haven’t before or see things from a different perspective along this self-love journey. Through opening your mind, you will also open your own eyes and have better self-awareness of what contributes to and takes away from the love you have for yourself. While these moments of self-discovery can at first feel uncomfortable, those are the growing pains required for change and can propel you forward if you let them.
3. Self-respect
It has been said that we teach other people how to treat us. If you previously felt such little love for yourself that you tolerated certain behaviors from other people, body positivity can help to change all that. Once you start to believe in your own self-worth and invest in it, your newly heightened self-respect will not allow you to let people into your life who take away from that in any way. Requiring respect should not be conditional; it applies to everyone no matter what.
Sassy Body Positive Quotes
Below are some sassy body positive quotes you can save for later and continue to read to make you feel good about your body, choose to completely embrace yourself and inspire others to do the same:
“One day I decided that I was beautiful and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl. It doesn’t have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see.”
― Gabourey Sidibe
“Is “fat” really the worst thing a human being can be? Is “fat” worse than “vindictive,” “jealous,” “shallow,” “vain,” “boring,” or “cruel”? Not to me.”
― J.K. Rowling
“My body is not yours to critique and discuss. My body is not yours for consumption. My body is my vessel. An archive of experiences. A weapon that has fought battles only I understand. A library of love, pain, struggle, victory, and mystery. Your eyes cannot define all it has endured. Do not place value upon my body, place it upon my being.”
― Sophie Lewis
“You are worth more than a waistline. You are worth more than beer bottles displayed like drunken artifacts. You are worth more than any naked body could proclaim in the shadows. More than a man’s whim or your father’s mistake. You are no less valuable as a size 16 than a size 4. You are no less valuable as a 32a than a 36c.”
― Mary Lambert
“This body had carried me through a hard life. It looked exactly the way it was supposed to.”
― Veronica Roth, Carve the Mark
“Your self-esteem won’t come from body parts. You need to step away from the mirror every once in a while, and look for another reflection, like the one in the eyes of the people who love you and admire you.”
― Stacy London
“And I said to my body softly, ‘I want to be your friend.’ It took a long breath and replied, ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this.’”
― Nayyirah Waheed
Conclusion
You have so much to gain from jumping in with both feet. One of the best parts of something that is trending is that there are so many outlets and supports readily available to help you. Remind yourself as many times a day as it takes that you are a deserving person. Use whatever quotes speak to you directly as your building blocks and work fiercely to embody them.
Being in tune with what your body needs to feel its best is such a gift you can give yourself. It is also so critical to work to separate how your body looks from what your body can do or what it is worth. It takes nothing to be kind, and you need to remember to keep yourself on that list. If you would not allow someone else to speak of you or your body with certain negative words or tones, do not accept that from yourself either.