4 Lessons In Body Positivity You NEED In Your Life Right Now

As 2015 comes to a close it's a time to reflect on the past 12 months. Holiday parties, gift giving, and the magic of the season all around us. It's an exciting time! It's also an exciting time for the English language! If you're a complete book nerd you were likely anxiously awaiting the annual announcement of new words added to the English dictionary. Words are added based on their popularity and cultural significance and among the new additions for 2015 are "dad bod", "swipe", "ghosting", "man spreading", and "shaming", to name a few. Shaming, particularly around body image, has gained a great deal of media attention in the past year. Fat-shaming, skinny-shaming, food-shaming, mom-shaming, and so on. Blogs, Instagram accounts, Twitter and Facebook feeds have been filled with rants, posts, vlogs, and snaps. In contrast to the negativity around shaming in its various forms, a body positive movement has emerged as a counter argument to the body-bashing shamers of the world. This movement is all about acceptance, self love and body positivity. These body positive advocates can teach us a lot about self worth. Here are 4 major lessons in body positivity we should all take to heart:

Perfection Doesn't Exist

No one is perfect. No one. Striving to attain perfection will only lead you to disappointment. Perfection, much like unicorns and zero-calorie pizza, simply does not exist (trust me, I've looked). When you're on a fitness journey you should strive to be the best version of yourself, not the best version of someone else. Some days will be easier than others. If you are one of those people who look outside themselves constantly and model your goals after others, their bodies, their achievements, you need to stop. Doing this leads nowhere. Admiring the accomplishments of others is one thing, but obsessively comparing yourself to others, and tearing yourself down if you don't meet those lofty standards is only hurting you. Don't participate in your own self shaming. If you're looking to make changes in your fitness, good for you! You may want to lose a few pounds, tone up, build muscle and that's great! Self improvement is healthy as long as it comes from a positive place and not one of self-loathing.

Set Goals

One way to make positive changes in your fitness is to set clear goals. These goals should be personal to you and not over lofty. Start with small milestones and go from there. Build the intensity of your goals as you move along your fitness journey. For more help with goal setting, making healthy changes, and staying positive check out our Beginner Bootcamp. This is just the place to start your new body positive routine. Here is the Beginner Bootcamp stance on goal setting: "By setting a goal, you’re creating an action plan and holding yourself accountable. Something profoundly powerful happens when you commit your goals to paper. The simple act of writing your goals down helps to bring your dreams to life. Your goals will keep you positive and focused on your fitness journey." Goals will give you focus and confidence in your actions, and will help propel you along your path. Results, here we come!

Do What You Love

Life is short and if you spend your time trying to fit into someone else's definition of beauty or success you will only exhaust and disappoint yourself. Do what YOU love. If you're trying to get healthy, do so, but don't compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to you yesterday. Do what makes you feel good, feel happy and 100% you. If you love to dance; DANCE! Don't fill your head with self doubt and worry about how uncoordinated you may be, or what is jiggling and when. If it makes you happy and healthy, then you go for it. Try and silence the self doubt in your own mind. Your confidence will shine through, like emotional-armour that will protect you against nasty comments and negativity.

Haters Gonna Hate

Sometimes putting yourself out there can be met with negativity and hate (especially when it comes to social media). There will always be people out there putting you down, leaving nasty comments, all the while posting their own seemingly perfect selfies. It takes time and lots of practice, but you've got to block out the noise and ignore the naysayers. This might mean making your accounts private, doing a Facebook friend cull, or deleting negative comments from posts. There are ways to avoid exposing yourself to negativity (even a little bit). You don't need it in your life! Remember who you are; strong, beautiful, determined and 100% uniquely YOU. Do you struggle with your own self esteem? How do you try and stay body positive? Let us know in the comments! If you're looking to make a change to your health and fitness, but don't know where to start check out the BodyRock Beginner Bootcamp. This free, 30 day program will help you set goals and make positive changes in your life!