What Is Body Neutrality?

You have probably already heard the term or seen posts about Body Positivity. It's the idea you're supposed to love your body, always. The term was originated in the 60s to give voice to marginalized bodies - mainly fat, black, queer and disabled bodies. Unfortunately, as time passed, the movement that was supposed to encourage people to love their bodies and feel accepted morphed into something very different. Body Positivity transformed into a movement that tells you WHAT bodies to love and ended up excluding more people rather than including and lifting them up.

Many feel pressure to embrace and celebrate their bodies, but how? Deciding overnight you're going to love your body after years of feeling like it is not worthy of love is just not realistic.

Enters, Body Neutrality.

The term was used for the first time in 2010 in treatment program at the Women’s Center for Binge and Emotional Eating in Vermont, USA and it became more popular and turned into a movement around 2015. The idea behind Body Neutrality is to help us move away from self-hate without all the pressure of having to love our body at all times. As human beings we are able to feel more than just love or hate towards something. There's a whole range of feelings one can experience and many of them are towards the middle of the spectrum. We can stand in a more neutral position and be open to see our body as it is.

How to practice Body Neutrality?

Some people have struggled with their body image for as long as they can remember and the relationship we have with our bodies can be messy and complicated. Oftentimes women and men have an internalized voice in their head that is constantly criticizing their body and it can take a long time and a lot of practice to train your mind to see your body in a different way.

Body Neutrality is about acknowledging what your body does for you, and not how it looks. Your body allows you to travel places, meet new people and experience new cultures. It allows you to learn knew things and be close to the people you love. When you accept the body you are in and focus on its achievements, rather than its appearance, there's energy left to focus on other personal attributes. Most importantly, the idea is that you don't have to attack yourself on the days where you don't feel like loving any part of your body. You can leave destructive thoughts and self-hate behind and find a middle ground where you can feel at peace with your natural self. It offers an opportunity to practice acceptance and openness to change.

Embracing body neutrality can make things simpler. We can take a step back and see our bodies for what they are. We can sit in this neutral place where we honor and respect our bodies. A place that, with time, will feel safer and a little more like home.