Body positivity vs body acceptance. Most people think you have to love your body. But you don’t have to. You don’t have to accept to either but accepting it is more powerful then body love and positivity. A few years ago we all heard it. Body positivity. It was all around us. You couldn’t turn a page in a magazine without something about it. It was all around. People thought you needed body positivity. There is a thing called negative body positivity. You could be saying things like “I’m beautiful.”,etc. and it be in a negative connotation because you feel like you have to say it and you don’t really believe it. Its easy to say body positive things but do you actually believe them? For me, the answer was no. No matter how much it was around me I couldn’t grasp it. I didn’t believe it for myself. I still don’t. I have an unstable self image and that’s okay because its not body positivity that I want to jump on board with. I want to jump on board with body acceptance. I would rather accept my body than think positive things about it. I know that probably doesn’t make sense but bear with me. When you’ve been told a lot of different things about your body and you don’t see it in positive ways, its not easy to try and believe the body positivity train. The body acceptance is saying I may not like you but I accept you. You are my body and I accept that. I will do what I can to keep you healthy but I accept you for what you are now. And that is powerful. It’s more powerful to accept something for what it is then trying to believe the positivity train. It’s more powerful to accept something for what it is. I can try and be positive about my body but does it really matter if I don’t believe it. Does it really matter if I don’t accept my body. I’m not perfect at this. I am still working on it myself. I’m trying to accept my body for what it is and that is hard to do. I’m not gonna lie about that. When you’ve been told lies about it your whole life and believed those lies for so long, its hard to automatically change the way your brain works. If you are struggling with your body and your body image today, I challenge you to try and accept your body for what it is then trying to speak positivity that you don’t believe. Hold onto hope and stay strong. Madison Rae <3
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