While seeing the message of body positivity around us can be immensely helpful, there can also be a sense of pressure to absolutely love our bodies and to do so quickly when we truly immerse ourselves in this world. It can seem like no one in the body positive community has a “bad body image day” and everyone absolutely adores their bodies all the time. Of course, this is not the case. Everyone, whether in the body positive community or not, have days where they don’t feel great about how they look. That said, the pressure to love our bodies can feel intense at times.

The perfect example I’ve been noticing frequently recently are all the social media posts of people rocking their bikinis (usually accompanied with long messages about how they can’t believe they are wearing it, feeling good in it etc). Nothing at all wrong with this, but we must remember it is only one part of that person’s complete story. The complete story would include those days where they weren’t feeling so great/comfortable in their bodies. (Remembering this if say we aren’t feeling so great about getting out there in a bikini this summer can be really helpful).

If there are any words I could give to anybody working on struggles with food and body image it would be exactly that. This is a journey that is unique to everyone. Not everyone will progress at the same pace, and not everyone’s journey will look exactly like yours! It really is ok to have the occasional day where you don’t feel like you look your best, and hopefully eventually those day will be far fewer then the days you don’t feel that anxiety around your appearance.

Questions about pressure around body acceptance or anything else food/body image related? Feel free to get in touch!