How many countless other destructive, negative, shaming cultural introjects about your body have you personally picked up or been exposed to in the media? My hunch: A bunch.
Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and frankly it’s no wonder since we still largely live in a world where body shaming is rampant, fat is a four letter word, women and girls are objectified as sexual objects, one-size-fits all weight numbers determines health, media and advertisers relentlessly prey on women’s insecurities, and all genders are bombarded day in and day out with utterly unrealistic expectations of what “beauty” is and “how” men and women should behave.
It’s relentless, it’s absurd, and it can have incredibly damaging effects on the mental health and well being of girls and boys, women and men.
But there’s hope. And I truly think this is coming in the form of the growing and cresting waves of what a lot of people refer to as the Body Positivity Movement: “a feminist movement that encourages women and/or female-identifying people to adopt more forgiving and affirming attitudes towards their bodies, with the goal of improving overall health and well-being.”
As a body positive therapist and woman on her own ever-evolving, ever-expanding self-love journey, I could not be more grateful for what the Body Positive Movement stands for and hope to play my own small role within it.
In honor of body positivity, I wanted to share 55 of my favorite body positive quotes and resources with you to support you in your own journey to body acceptance and self-love. Some of these you may have encountered before but likely many of them will be new to you and I hope you enjoy them!
55 Inspiring Body Positive Quotes and Resources:
- “It makes utter sense to stay healthy and strong, to be as nourishing to the body as possible. Yet I would have to agree, there is in many women a ‘hungry’ one inside. But rather than hungry to be a certain size, shape, or height, rather than hungry to fit the stereotype; women are hungry for basic regard from the culture surrounding them. The ‘hungry’ one inside is longing to be treated respectfully, to be accepted and in the very least, to be met without stereotyping.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD
- “It’s never been true, not anywhere at any time, that the value of a soul, of a human spirit, is dependent on a number on a scale. We are unrepeatable beings of light and space and water who need these physical vehicles to get around. When we start defining ourselves by that which can be measured or weighed, something deep within us rebels. We don’t want to EAT hot fudge sundaes as much as we want our lives to BE hot fudge sundaes. We want to come home to ourselves.” – Geneen Roth
