There is a quiet message woven through our culture that your body is never finished.
It needs improving. Tightening. Shrinking. Fixing. Optimizing.
Even in wellness spaces, where the language sounds softer, the message often stays the same. Eat cleaner. Sleep better. Track more. Correct your posture. Biohack your energy. Upgrade yourself.
It’s exhausting.
What if your body was never a project to begin with?
What if it was a place you live?
Moving Away From Constant Fixing
Many of us were taught to relate to our bodies through criticism. We learned to scan for flaws before we learned to feel for signals. We internalized the idea that our worth was connected to how our body looked or performed.
That conditioning runs deep.
So even when we begin healing, the impulse to fix can follow us. We trade shame for optimization. We swap harsh criticism for subtle self-improvement goals. It still centers the idea that our body is a problem to solve.
But your body is not a before-and-after story.
It is the reason you are here.
Body Neutrality vs. Forced Body Positivity
Body positivity can be beautiful and liberating. But for many people, jumping straight to “I love my body” feels unrealistic or even dishonest.
If you’ve spent years criticizing your body, suddenly demanding that you adore it can feel like another performance.
This is where body neutrality becomes powerful.
Body neutrality doesn’t require you to love how you look. It simply invites you to respect your body because it is yours. It asks you to treat your body with care not because it meets a standard, but because it carries you.
Neutrality says:
This is my body.
It deserves compassion.
I do not need to be at war with it.
And sometimes, that is enough.
Gratitude for What Your Body Has Carried
Your body has carried you through things no one else fully sees.
Stress. Grief. Illness. Joy. Trauma. Recovery. Love. Loss. Change.
Even on days when it felt tired, inflamed, heavier than you wanted, or less capable than it once was, it was still working on your behalf.
Your heart kept beating.
Your lungs kept breathing.
Your nervous system kept trying to protect you.
Gratitude here isn’t about appearance. It’s about endurance.
You do not have to love every part of your body to acknowledge that it has been loyal to you in ways you may not have noticed.
Rebuilding Trust After Stress, Illness, or Trauma
For many people, trust with the body has been disrupted.
Chronic stress can make the body feel like an enemy. Illness can make it feel unreliable. Trauma can make it feel unsafe. Aging can feel like betrayal in a culture that worships youth.
Rebuilding trust does not happen through control. It happens through listening.
Trust grows when you:
Rest when you are tired
Eat when you are hungry
Move in ways that feel supportive instead of punishing
Pause when you notice overwhelm
Speak to your body with neutrality instead of critique
Small acts of care begin to repair what criticism eroded.
Over time, the relationship softens.
Treating the Body as a Companion, Not a Problem
Imagine relating to your body the way you would a lifelong companion.
You wouldn’t berate a friend for aging.
You wouldn’t shame someone for being tired.
You wouldn’t demand constant productivity without rest.
Yet many of us do exactly that to ourselves.
Your body is not a project you complete. It is a relationship you tend.
It will change. It will fluctuate. It will have seasons. That does not make it broken.
It makes it human.
You are allowed to live in your body without constantly trying to improve it.
You are allowed to support it without correcting it.
You are allowed to respect it without performing love for it.
That is embodied trust.
Reflection
Take a quiet moment and ask yourself:
What has my body carried me through?
How can I support my body today without trying to fix it?
You do not need to make a dramatic change.
A glass of water.
A few slow breaths.
A softer thought.
That is enough for today. 🌿
