1. Loving your body looks good on you.
Self-hate, while widely accepted in our world, is never attractive. It makes me very uncomfortable when people I see as absolutely stunning make self-deprecating remarks. I desperately wish they could see their own beauty. And I know many, many people who are even more beautiful for unapologetically loving their bodies.
2. Focus on being healthy, not skinny.
Your body isn't an idiot. Treat it right, and it will look healthy. It will look like the way it is supposed to, the way it was created to look. It won't look bruised or beaten into submission. We put living human skeletons on runways; we put their animalistic equals in the hospital, angry at their abusers. We post before and after photos of the newest diet and the dramatic weight loss, and we post before and afters of dogs' dramatic weight gain once love and food and happiness replace the misery in their life.
3. Stop trying to fix your body and start trying to fix the world.
There is a world outside of your body. Like it or not, your body is yours, and sometimes it can take up a lot of attention. But that does not mean that you must focus your energy on it. You decide on what you spend your mental energies on. Choose to step outside yourself, and see if you feel any better. At the least, you'll get a little bit of a distraction. Body positivity is always a good thing, and can always have a positive impact on the world- why not work against the very negative thing that's trying to manipulate its way into.
4. There is no wrong way to have a body.
I'll say it again. There is no wrong way to have a body. Disabled, able-bodied, skinny, thick, curvy, flat — you name it. If you have a body, your body is right. It's valuable and deserves to be validated as such. A body shape is not limiting. Every single body can laugh, sing, dance, and enjoy life. You don't have to like all parts of your body to accept all parts of your body. To someone, your body is enviable; if someone could get a copy of your body, it still wouldn't be as good as the original.
5. Her beauty does not degrade yours.
Here comes my soapbox. No one else's beauty lessens yours. That's simply not possible. You are beautiful because of the freckle on your nose; she is beautiful because her eyes look bluer when it's raining outside. There is no one that could possibly outshine you with their body. And there is no one you could possibly outshine yours because the battle of bodies isn't a battle at all. It's not a competition. It is a group of people who are growing in community with each other.
