5 important steps to make friends with your own body

Gratitude to the body

While your body may not currently evoke excitement and euphoria, there are plenty of reasons to be grateful for it. It could be simple gratitude for life in general, or you may recall more specific examples.

Perhaps during blackouts, your body carried you up 12 flights of stairs despite feeling faint, or you endured 40 minutes at a bus stop in the cold without falling ill afterward. Can you remember sleepless nights during your turbulent youth when you still managed to attend school or work and then repeated the marathon?

There are countless things your body does for you every day, and they don't necessarily relate to appearance. Try to notice each day when your body supports, rescues, and helps you, shifting the focus.

Establishing neutrality

Perhaps the desire to fully love yourself is entirely natural and justified, but if today you don't even want to look at yourself in the mirror, expecting incredible self-love tomorrow is unrealistic, at the very least.

However, a good intermediate goal can be a neutral attitude toward your own body. That is, an attitude where there is no room for bullying and constant criticism, where you don't punish or condemn yourself. Where you are in friendly relations with your body, negotiating with yourself and helping yourself.

For example, if you want to motivate yourself to go to the gym, you can refrain from insulting yourself but agree that after exercising, you can take a favorite bath or remind yourself that sports will make you more resilient.

How to make friends with your own body (Photo: Freepik)

Prioritize basic needs

The most basic thing often overlooked is basic needs. Adequate sleep, good and timely nutrition, stable hydration, rest, and physical activity—your body needs these much more than that trendy scrub or under-eye patches.

Review your attitude toward your own needs. Perhaps you often skip meals due to work tasks? Or neglect rest for the sake of other duties? Or to watch one more episode? Try to take care of your needs on time, and you will notice how your attitude toward yourself changes for the better.

Less is more

Sometimes we are so eager to overcome the mountain that we don't notice how difficult the path may be. And as soon as we see this, an even greater disappointment awaits us. To avoid this, you need to break down your huge goal into smaller, more comfortable steps.

Start by gradually adding one habit every 1-2 weeks. For example, if your goal is to go to bed no later than 10:30 PM, start by going to bed half an hour earlier than usual.

If you want to adopt healthy eating habits, you can start by adding more vegetables to your plate. Choose walks instead of the gym or dancing instead of fitness if it's more comfortable for you.

Reward instead of punishment

Make it a habit to first note the good things that happened or were achieved, rather than focusing on shortcomings. Your inner voice may be used to talking about how nothing works out for you, your hands are idle, and your mind is blank, but is it worth listening to? Positive reinforcement motivates you better than repeatedly accusing yourself.

If you didn't manage to run a kilometer, you can rejoice that you ran at all today, even though you wanted to stay in bed in the morning. If you're not happy with your eating, think about the reasons for your overeating today and how you can eliminate them in the future.

Perhaps you're setting your alarm clock again with a heavy heart, imagining how difficult it will be to wake up, so what will please you in the first 15 minutes after waking up? Favorite coffee? Hugs from family? Or watching your favorite show? Plan this for yourself, and your morning will shine with new colors.

Earlier, we talked about when to eat eggs to lose weight.

This material is for informational purposes only and should not be used for medical diagnosis or self-treatment. Our goal is to provide readers with accurate information about symptoms, causes, and methods of detecting diseases. RBС-Ukraine is not responsible for any diagnoses that readers may make based on materials from the resource. We do not recommend self-treatment and advise consulting a doctor in case of any health concerns.