The COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying lockdown measures and restrictions have wreaked havoc on my self confidence and body image. I’ve found myself gaining weight, feeling sluggish and tired, having much more limited opportunities for self care and exercise and spending wayyy more time criticising myself than I ever had before. I can’t be the only one, right?
My counsellor asked me if I feel attractive last week and I actually laughed. And although that’s probably kind of relatable to some of you and maybe even a little bit funny, isn’t that actually quite sad ??? Like, to me, the idea of thinking of myself as attractive was so ridiculous that my first thought was to find it funny? It’s not right.
Loving the way my body looks is a long way off. Even being comfortable in my skin feels out of reach right now. I’m working on it. Until I get there, I thought I’d try to find functional and practical reasons to help me at least respect my body the way I should. This is for anyone else who is struggling right now.
Because I want this post to be as body neutral as possible, there is some reference to bodily functions / body parts that could be squeamish for some readers. You do you, and if you find these things triggering, why not head and read about the things I learned in counselling instead!
Let’s get started.
50 Reasons your body is awesome
Because it is awesome and you should spend some time learning to respect it.
- It’s your home. You live in it. It houses your mind and your beautiful soul. That’s pretty damn incredible.
- Exercise is good for your mental health – even light stretching and gentle movement helps. Pretty cool!
- You can use your body to connect and communicate with others through gestures and touching.
- In fact, this study found that, getting your daily quota of hugs (8 per day) has been known to reduce stress levels.
- Your body works really hard to convert the food you eat into fuel to get you through the day.
- Being stressed can affect how you digest food, how you sleep and make you prone to illness – so being kind to yourself is actually physically good for you!
- Your belly button grows special hairs in it to catch lint and debris, which is why you keep finding it there!
- Around 15% of your body weight is skin, which is actually the largest organ in the human body.
- And around 8% is blood. Next time you pressure yourself to think about weight loss, try to remember that your weight is made up of important components that keep you alive!
- Also, blood can make people faint when they see it – so 8% of you is made of something so powerful it can take out your enemies (if they could see inside you and they were squeamish – not so much practical as it is quietly badass.)
- Part of what makes up your body weight is fat. Like everything else in your body, it has uses and functions that your body needs to survive.
- Fat is a neutral word, it’s a body part without morals. So, when you hear someone negatively use the word fat (or do it yourself), try to stop and remember that the word is more easily swapped with “skin” than it is “bad”.
- White fat cells are stored around your buttocks, thighs, belly and arms. They are your body’s way of storing energy up for later use and also play a large part in regulating your hormones.
- Brown fat cells burn fatty acids and are most commonly found in your neck and shoulders (and in babies – awwww!)
- You have essential fats in your body that keeps you alive. It can be found in your bone marrow, brain, nerves and in the membranes around your organs.
- Genetically, all human beings are more than 99% identical. You are more than 99% genetically identical to Michelle Obama. How cool is that? I’m going to remind myself of that every single day.
- Speaking of cool, your body is constantly responding to external and internal factors to keep your temperature within 1 or 2 degrees of 37°C (98.6°F).
- Sweating is actually really normal and an important function. When your sweat glands are activated, they bring water to the surface of your skin, which then evaporates; cooling your body down.
- And earwax is actually just a type of sweat!
- Goosebumps evolved to make our ancestors’ hair stand on end and make them appear more threatening to predators. Your own built in armour.
- Adrenaline is an important hormone that helps prepare your body for fight or flight in times of stress (although too much adrenaline can actually cause anxiety!)
- Did you know that blushing is also caused by a rush of adrenaline? So the next time you feel that skin prickle, just know it’s just your body trying to manage your stress levels for you!
- Also good for stress management – smooching! Yep, kissing is also one of our natural relaxers and kissing will release oxytocin, dopamine and endorphins into your body.
- You might have heard people say that your tongue is the strongest muscle in your body, but your tongue is actually made up of 4 intertwining muscles that form to make a muscular hydrostat (like an octopus tentacle or an elephant’s trunk!).
- The human body contains more than 600 muscles all working together to help the body function. 600? You’re just showing off now.
- You have “abs”. Yes, we all have abdominal muscles in our torso – they help with movement, shock absorption and protecting our organs.
- Our muscles also help with circulation, breathing, urination and even vision!
- The muscles in your eyes are actually the fastest muscles in your body, allowing your eyes to switch direction in just 50 milliseconds.
- Be careful though, because, according to this 2015 experiment which tracked those super fast movements, your eyes might actually give away your next move.
- You might have heard that eyes are windows into the soul, but did you know that your eyes are actually a visible part of your brain? Maybe that explains why they’re exposing our secret plans!
- Please don’t forget that it’s your body that allows you to dream. Your brain still “sees” during REM sleep, even though your eyes are closed. So you’re actually looking at your dreams in your mind’s eye. That’s incredible isn’t it?
- Everyone dreams! – you might have up to 6 dreams a night. Doesn’t mean you’ll remember them, but they happen.
- The normal amount of time it should take a person to fall asleep each night is between 10-20 minutes. If it regularly takes you longer than this, there could be an underlying issue – speak to your doctor or a pharmacist. Sleep is such an important part of your health, there’s no shame in asking for help if you need it.
- Good news, napping is good for us. According to Sleep Foundation, a nap of 20-30 minutes is enough to help most adults feel alert without adding grogginess.
- Oxytocin rises while you’re in close proximity or contact with another human being, and this continues even while we’re asleep – so napping with someone else can actually help boost your mood and prompt feelings of empathy.
- Spooning leads to forking. Oxytocin is also released during orgasm so, if you can’t sleep, consider getting jiggy with it.
- Masturbation can boost your self esteem, improve your body image and help you understand your body better.
- Masturbation also helps reduce stress. The ultimate act of self love.
- You can tense and relax the muscles in your body to bring your stress levels down and prepare your body for rest. It will reduce the tension in your body and help increase your physical and emotional health.
- Your body is on your side. It might not always feel that way but, despite being talked about separately, your physical and mental health are closely linked. Working on your health holistically can help raise your health gradually.
- Actually past trauma can impact on you physically and has been linked with stress related health conditions and chronic illness. Mental healing and growth could also bring some health benefits that affect you physically.
- You can actually improve your body image by learning focusing on how your body works, rather than thinking about what it looks like.
- I used to think my nose was ugly. Now I try not to measure its worth by its appearance, but instead try to celebrate the fact that it can sneeze at a speed of 100 miles per hour (my nose is wayyyy faster than Ussain bolt).
- Your heart is your only muscle that never tires, pumping blood around your body around 1,000 times every single day. The stamina. I feel tired just thinking about it tbh.
- Your body contains up to 100,000 miles of blood vessels – enough to wrap around the earth 2.5 times (I don’t recommend trying)
- Parts of your body are even self cleaning and don’t need washing as often as you would think!
- Starting conversations about your body and opening up about your bodily functions can actually bring your closer to other people.
- For example, farting is normal and natural and nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, the average person farts enough every day to fill a party balloon.
- Your bones are (pound for pound) stronger than steel and 1 square inch of bone can bear the weight of 19,000 lbs. You are made of tough stuff.
- And you are 2 million years in the making. Humans have been evolving for a long, long time and you are one of the most modern fanciest ones. All of your ancestors survived long enough to come together and make you – I think that’s pretty damn amazing.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Ultimately I know that reading one blog post isn’t going to turn your relationship with your body around. I just hope that it might have given you some stuff to think about and at least peaked you curiosity about the things that your body does for you.
Self love is going to be a long road for me too – believe me when I say that I’m not about to try to shame you for not falling desperately in love with your body overnight. BUT what I would say is that you owe your body some respect and appreciation. I don’t see why we can’t start working on that together right away.
I’m going to be ordering this book from Amazon:
The Body Image Workbook by Thomas F. Cash, PH.d (affiliate link)
because I’m trying to invest more in myself and I like books. There’s absolutely no pressure for you to approach this in the same way as me, although, if you do – please click on the link. It’s an affiliate link, which means that I get a teeny tiny commission if you choose to make a purchase. It doesn’t cost you any extra and helps support my blog.
