Why it’s okay if you don’t always love your body

In the last few years, body positivity has become a common topic in pop culture and in everyday interactions. There are campaigns pushing for women, especially, to love their bodies. They say that no matter how we look, no matter what our size or skin color or hair texture, we’re beautiful. And it’s great, because we deserve to be confident in our own skin, after all. What’s better than encouraging women to be confident and to recognize how awesome they are just as they are?

Unfortunately, though, it’s not always easy to love your body. Sometimes it’s just a bad hair day, but other times it’s something bigger. Maybe you just don’t feel comfortable at the size you’re at. Maybe you have a disability that really frustrates you sometimes. Maybe you just can’t get past the societal expectations that, to be a woman, you have to be thinner or curvier, lighter skinned and bigger-boobed to get ahead or even be paid attention to. Whatever it is, though, it’s valid.

Yes, loving our bodies is better than hating them. But it’s okay if you don’t love your body 24/7. There’s nothing wrong with having an off day, week, or year. It’s also totally possible that you’ve never given your body enough thought to love it in the first place! Sometimes I feel best on the days where I’ve somehow forgotten that I have a body. Obviously, I haven’t completely forgotten, but sometimes the worry just sort of slips my mind. I get so caught up in what I’m doing and where I’m going that I forget to stress about my hair being too curly and my hips being too big and my eyebrows being in desperate need of a tweeze.

And on these days, my existence isn’t rocked. Nothing changes. The world doesn’t come to an end. Somehow, I survive without obsessing over what I look like, and whether I look good enough or not to be a woman in this sexist society. It’s a nice feeling, and one I feel privileged (and know I am privileged) to have every once in a while.

So whether you don’t love your body because you just aren’t feeling totally into how you look or feel these days, or whether you don’t love your body because you just don’t give it much thought, it’s okay. While body positivity totally rocks, and few things are better than confidence, there’s also nothing wrong with moving beyond your body and focusing on the other things that make you, you.