Why Loving Your Body, Inside And Out, Is Crucial To Your Wellbeing

The recent trend of body positivity, aka the “love your body” movement, has been on the rise as a way to promote better self-image and self-worth.

Today, we are constantly bombarded with magazines and advertisements featuring bodies of near-impossible standards. Society constantly ridicules people with body types different from this standard.

The "love your body" movement is great for promoting self-love and image, but those positive thoughts should also be directed toward our health.

I truly believe confidence is key in life; without confidence, it is very easy for criticism and challenges to seep through the figurative cracks and tear you down.

Positive body image is important to establish, especially early on in life, so the psychological stressors of negative body image cannot take their toll.

Not only is low self-esteem something that can hold us back in life, but it is also a key ingredient in a vicious self-loathing cycle that leads us to form behaviors and habits detrimental to our well-beings.

At the same time, it is important to establish healthy habits early on in life. Being healthy is a lifestyle choice, not a trend. We need to incorporate a stronger focus on health in this movement.

Shouldn’t body positivity include making constant efforts to cherish your body and bring it to your peak state of being?

Being positive about the way you look is great, but just not enough; learning to be positive about your appearance, health and well-being is what should define body positivity.

We should be addressing our stress, sleep, healthy-eating habits, efforts to be physically active and other important components that contribute to our health. Are you making daily efforts that contribute to your overall mental, emotional and physical wellbeing?

No one component, like appearance, is the answer to being 100 percent positive in general. Body positivity, loving yourself and all of these concepts in general involve uniting our minds, emotions and physical beings together in a harmonious balance.

Stop dwelling on how you look and address what matters at the end of the day — your health and well-being.

It is critical to love yourself at every stage in life and establish this before any type of transformation occurs.

But, if you love yourself and your body, it’ll be worth it to invest time to becoming physically healthier. Even if you currently have a clean bill of health, it’s important to stay consistent with your healthy habits.

When you’re healthy, you don’t need to prove anything to anyone; you know deep down, you are happy with your body and all it can do for you. Appreciating the remarkable things your amazing body can do is something on which we should focus.

Ultimately, your health is everything; if you don’t have health, your appearance won’t matter so much.

Let’s let go of the obsession regarding how we look. Let’s stop trying to prove to society we think we are beautiful and good enough.

Life isn’t a race, and you don’t have to prove anything to anyone; it’s impossible to please everyone. Listen to your inner voice and sense of happiness.

No matter which situations you encounter in life, the one commonality is you, and what you are capable of achieving in life depends entirely on you and your choices.

The only person you should strive to be better than is the person you were yesterday. Strive for your ideal self.

Celebrate your health; celebrate your body, and celebrate your life. Celebrate all your healthy body can do for you and the small things you can do to nourish your body to praise it even more.