You see the hashtag wherever you go: #BoPo. But what does it mean? It means body positivity, and it’s quite possibly one of the movements that is changing the world right now.
Sadly, children are brought up to believe that they should look a certain way and dress in a specific style. We’re told to hold ourselves in particular ways, along with social beauty standards being rammed down our throats.
Because of this, it all leads to poor opinions of our bodies, and we are then thrust into a world of dieting, working out, guilt, and shame just for looking the way that we look. It’s really sad and can become very traumatizing.
This constant stream of hatred and telling us how we should hate ourselves leads people into depression, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness and social withdrawal. The toll that all of this takes on the body when it comes to diet and negative body image is huge. It leads to so many other issues.
One minute you are being told that you’re eating too much sugar and any body weight is something to be ashamed of, and the next you’re feeling rubbish about having to wear glasses.
It seeps into everything and it’s hard to be able to feel good about any aspect of your body. It’s hard to deal with poor body image, and it’s the biggest reason that the #BoPo movement has come about.
We Are Done!
We are done. We are done feeling bad for not being Photoshopped in real life. We are done feeling less than adequate. We are done with the emotional distress and the physical disappointment.
Let’s Embrace Who We Are!
Instead, we are embracing our curves. We’re normalising wearing specs. We’re making it okay to have a roll of skin and softness when we sit down. We’re seeing ourselves in the same light in which we shine on our friends. It’s all very refreshing and very new.
However, when you spend your whole life hating on yourself and being told how to hate your body, old habits die hard.
Boost Your #BoPo With These 8 Tips
With that in mind, let’s take a look at eight ways you can boost your body positivity and start to feel good about yourself at last.
- It’s time to gather your inner resources and start to fake it til you make it! You don’t have to feel instantly confident, but you can fake your confidence and push through any insecurity when you do it. Eventually, you will start to believe it that you do feel good! It takes a long time to undo the self-hatred, so give yourself time. You’re not going to get it all at once.
- It’s time to add a positive spin to your inner voice. You don’t deserve insults and vitriol, you deserve positive words and happy thoughts. So, it’s time to hit the pause button and switch it over to the happy channel. Positivity isn’t an overnight achievement, so be kind to yourself even if you can’t be instantly happy!
- Every time you think about something negative, turn it instantly into a positive. So, you don’t like your new glasses? That’s okay – look at you out there in the world and seeing everything that there is to see! It’s a positive – you have the ability to watch the world around you.
- Get off your Facebook and Instagram page. No, right now, not later. You are the person in control of how others make you feel, and you cannot accept feeling low and rubbish. If seeing people looking a certain way is going to affect your mental health, then you need to stop letting it affect you and switch it off. Until you learn to control how others make you feel, you cannot maintain a happier outlook.
- It’s really hard to enjoy working on your body for fun when you are instead bombarded with ideas that working out is for being skinny. So, you need to find something fun. Rock-climbing and dancing, Zumba and trampolining are all exciting exercises to be involved in and you can really enjoy the movement. If you enjoy it, it’s worth it! Movement is not a punishment for your body.
6. It’s so easy to stop wearing those bright colors or the fun clothes that you love to wear. You do not need to be a certain size to wear certain clothes. All clothes go on all bodies, including yours.
Revamping your wardrobe with clothes that make you feel good and you are comfortable wearing. The only clothing you shouldn’t wear is the stuff that makes you feel bad – so stop feeling bad! You are allowed to wear what you want, when you want.
- When you are taught self-hate, criticism comes easily to you. You will sit and hate yourself just for existing in the skin you are in. Instead of hatred, start practicing a little gratitude. Those legs that have cellulite? Those legs are holding you upright and keeping you moving. The arms with the extra love at the top? Those arms are keeping you strong. Your stomach that’s a little squishier than you’d like? That stomach once grew your child, your greatest love. You can’t hate your body when it builds a person from scratch.
- Get some help for your issues if they are insurmountable. You don’t deserve to feel this way. You deserve to feel whole and happy, and while you may have been taught how to hate yourself, that lesson takes time to unpick and iron out. You need to work out how to make yourself feel good again, and that takes some professional help at times. Get the therapy that you need to feel whole.
Final Thoughts
We are done feeling bad for not being Photoshopped in real life. Instead, we are embracing our whole selves. Take notes on these eight tips to being to feel better about who you are and embracing body positivity.
