Body-love is such a loaded topic, isn’t it?
Everywhere you look, someone is talking about body image—how to improve it, change it, or fix it. For many of us, the journey toward learning to love your body feels impossible, thanks to societal pressures, toxic beauty standards, and years of self-criticism.
Here’s the truth: learning to love your body isn’t about being perfect, shrinking yourself, or pretending to love every inch of your skin all the time. It’s about creating a relationship with your body that’s built on trust, care, and compassion.
So, what does loving your body really look like? And how can you start the process today? Let’s break it down.
What Learning to Love Your Body Does NOT Mean
Before diving in, let’s address some common misconceptions. Learning to love your body doesn’t mean:
- Neglecting your health: It’s not about eating fast food for every meal or avoiding movement altogether.
- Obsessing over your appearance: Loving your body doesn’t mean staring in the mirror all day or seeking constant validation.
- Ignoring reality: It doesn’t mean pretending you’re OK when you’re not or forcing yourself to feel positive 24/7.
Instead, learning to love your body is about balance, kindness, and freedom from the constant war with yourself.
What Learning to Love Your Body Looks Like
Loving your body is about showing up for yourself—every day. Here’s what it means in practice:
1. Taking Care of Your Body
Loving your body starts with listening to it. What does it need right now? Rest? Nourishment? Movement? Learning to love your body means honoring those needs without guilt or punishment.
2. Letting Go of Food Rules
You don’t need cheat days, restrictive diets, or food guilt. True body-love means allowing yourself to eat without shame and trusting your body to find balance naturally.
3. Finding Joy in Movement
Exercise isn’t about punishment or calorie-burning. Learning to love your body means moving in ways that bring you joy—dancing, walking, stretching, or even playing like a kid.
4. Catching Comparison
It’s easy to compare your body to someone else’s, but learning to love your body means catching those thoughts and reminding yourself of your body’s uniqueness.
5. Trusting Your Body
Your body isn’t the enemy. It’s wise, resilient, and always working to keep you alive. The more you trust it, the more you’ll find peace in its natural rhythms.
Why Learning to Love Your Body Is Hard—But Worth It
Let’s be honest: the process of learning to love your body isn’t always easy. You’ll still have “bad body days” or moments when old insecurities creep in. That’s normal.
But here’s the difference: body-love gives you the tools to move through those moments without spiraling into self-hatred. It empowers you to keep going, knowing that your worth has nothing to do with how you look.
When you’re learning to love your body:
- You stop obsessing over the scale.
- You let go of shame around food.
- You focus on how you feel instead of how you look.
And best of all? You free up space in your mind, heart, and life to focus on what truly matters.
How to Start Learning to Love Your Body
Ready to begin? Here are a few small steps you can take today:
1. Pause and reflect
Write down 3 things your body does for you every day. Maybe it lets you hug your loved ones, walk your dog, or breathe in fresh air.
2. Speak kindly to yourself
When you catch yourself criticizing your body, stop and replace the thought with something kind. Example: Instead of “I hate my stomach,” try “My body carries me through life, and I’m grateful for that.”
3. Eat with intention
Ditch the food rules. Nourish your body with meals that leave you feeling energized and satisfied—without guilt.
4. Move with joy
Find an activity that feels good—not one that feels like punishment. Go for a walk, try yoga, dance, or stretch.
5. Practice gratitude
Thank your body for all it does: for its strength, resilience, and the simple fact that it keeps you alive every single day.
The Magic of Trusting Your Body
Here’s the truth about learning to love your body: it’s not about perfection. You’ll still face challenges, insecurities, and doubts. But when you start trusting your body—truly trusting it—you create space for peace and freedom.
Your body is not here to trick you, betray you, or let you down. It’s on your side.
When you trust it:
- You stop fighting yourself.
- You stop starving or bingeing.
- You stop living in fear and start living with confidence and joy.
Why Learning to Love Your Body Changes Everything
Loving your body isn’t about looking a certain way. It’s about showing up for yourself with kindness, respect, and trust—no matter what.
Imagine this:
- No more food guilt.
- No more obsessing over the scale.
- No more missing out on life because you’re ashamed of your body.
Instead, you get to experience freedom, confidence, and peace—every single day.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Learning to love your body is a journey, but you don’t have to do it alone. If you’re ready to break free from body-shame, food guilt, and self-doubt, I’m here to help.
👉 Book a 45-minute complimentary Discovery Call and let’s start building the body-love and freedom you deserve.
I love my muffin top;)) As always this is a wonderful post!
woohoo! I LOVE to hear that.
Absolutely right Anne-Sophie – loving our body is a balancing act to be practiced daily…it’s amazing the difference it can make to our health and wellbeing. If we’re not choosing love, then we’re living in fear…not a good place for any of us.
Thanks for your wise words.
Love elle
xoxo
Couldn’t have said it better. It’s so easy to buy into the fear of being ugly, fat and unworthy. That can not only ruin your happiness but also take your life – at worst.
Loving my body – giving it good, whole and healthy nutrition.
Looking in the mirror and saying “you are beautiful” and trying my best to believe it.
Trying not to compare but to be grateful for this life lived so far. In this unique body of mine.
Being grateful for what makes me “me” – pale skin, long blond hair, smiley eyes, long legs, straight hips (and not picking on the negative stuff that I will not even list here, because it would only be that negative voice rambling on again).
Beautifully said, Susa. I love the unique Susa you are and I see beauty in her whole being including, but also far beyond, her beautiful shape, eyes, smile, hair and so much more. You’re a star in your own right, never forget that.
I’m still learning what it means to love my body – posts like this give me hope and inspiration that it can be done.
sweetie, in a way, I think we’re all always learning to love our bodies. I’ms so glad that this post gives you hope. It sometimes feels like a long, twisted, cold road, but it’s so worth every step. All my love to you.
Hi Anne-Sophie,
So many young girls are receiving the wrong message at an early age these days. They are told that their value lies in the way that they look. We look at men for their brain power and women for their body and their looks. As time goes on, women feel the pain of not being able to live up to society’s image of what they should look like. You are doing a great service here to remind people about body image and how important it is to love ourselves for who we are.
Thank you so much, Cathy, and you are absolutely right. It breaks my heart to hear that girls as young as 5 years old are already dieting and criticizing their bodies. We are crushed by the weight of needing to like a certain way – even if it goes against our genetics. The more we talk about how beautiful every single one of us is the better.
I’ve spent the last few days with a friend who has cancer. It certainly makes me appreciate my body even more. I think sometimes we don’t concentrate on what’s “right” with our bodies, only on what’s “wrong”. It’s nice when our bodies are pretty but I’d rather be healthy!! Great post!!
Betsy, I’m so sorry to hear about your friend. Please know I’m sending love and strength her and your way. Yes, we focus way more on all the parts we don’t like about our bodies instead of being grateful for being healthy and alive and for allowing our bodies to do all the work they do. And that’s a lot of work. 🙂
Loving my body to me would mean a freer heart and mind. They would be in sync to just let me live for once… and I try to block both my mind and heart out right now since they are having issues with things still by swimming since that is the only thing that can totally kill all bad thoughts and make me feel totally great. It is a great use of my body and refreshes me and actually leaves my mind in a better state after 40 minutes than before I got there. my eyes finally SEE what is really there in the mirror and that is a big change, so I am sure that I can switch over the mind to accepting things and then getting the heart to love what is there. There are parts I do love, it is just the “whole” I have to work on. But it will come… I am sure of that. It has been over three decades and that is a very long time… so what progress I have made, well I am happy with! 🙂
I think that being aware of the fact that swimming helps you to see what is really there is HUGE, Karen. It’s amazing that you’ve found this way of seeing reality and acknowledging yourself. Keep on working on seeing the beauty in the different parts and you will arrive at loving the whole – without a shadow of a doubt. Love you, girl.
I’ve been a big girl all my life and I struggle with my body issues every single day. I was — at my heaviest and have lost about — since then but I still have this ‘fat girl’ mentality. It’s hard for me to break out of this especially since I’ve always been made fun of being fat while growing up. What’s worse is that my parents are always emphasizing about the importance of not being fat. I grew with comments like ‘Dont be too fat or else no one will want to marry you’. Once, my dad told me if I get alot fatter, he’d be embarrassed to walk with me. I love my parents to bits but this just broke my heart. Anyway, I know its a long way before I can finally accept myself as I am but I’m thankful to have come across this blog(:
Hey Sheylla, thank you so much for your struggle. I’m really sorry to hear about your struggles. Congrats on losing so much weight and really taking care of your body. It’s not surprising that you still struggle with your mindset though. Changing your self-perception is often the trickiest part of all. However, I’d like to encourage you to stop referring to yourself as “fat” or “big”. This may take a few attempts but it’ll make a huge difference. Also, try to challenge the beliefs you grew up with. Where your parents right? Did they only portray their own fears on you? And one more challenge for you: try to find one thing every day that you love about yourself. Sooo glad you found this blog and I’m hoping that together we’ll get you to a body-loving place and a joy-filled life. <3