Written By Idayat Jinadu
I have a full-length mirror in my room, and I tend to dance naked in front of it—an activity that brings me so much joy. When I’m in front of the mirror and I look at myself, I feel a deep appreciation towards my body, and this feeling is one I greatly treasure.
I used to struggle with my body. I wasn’t conventionally sexy; my breasts weren’t perky and my stomach constantly appeared like I had just swallowed 3 hefty plates of rice and chicken. I tried so hard to love my body the way it was that I repeated affirmations and chanted poems, but nothing really changed. Instead, I sank deeper into the despair of having a body that wasn’t beautiful, and to make things worse, I couldn’t even love it. I was seeing essays and pictures on body positivity, reading countless messages from women who changed the relationship they had with their bodies, for good, by loving them and being positive. Seeing that and being unable to replicate it for myself, I felt like there was something wrong with me. This made me spend a lot of time apologising for my body by living in shame; my shoulders were always low while walking, and my head was bowed. I was trying to hide myself from people. This made me miserable.
Then one night, while doom scrolling on Pinterest, I saw a poster for body neutrality. The term piqued my curiosity, as I had never heard of it, as opposed to body positivity, which was always in my face. So I clicked on the image to find out more, and what I found changed my life.
Body neutrality is a state of appreciating one’s body. It doesn’t promote love; instead, it encourages gratitude. Before I discovered body neutrality, it didn’t occur to me to be grateful to my body. I didn’t even think of my body beyond its physical appearance: my stomach, breasts, legs, skin colour and texture, and face. I was only concerned with how my appearance impacted me, but body neutrality changed my mind; it was radical.
With body neutrality, I realised that my body doesn’t have to be beautiful, conventionally, to be worthy. My body doesn’t have to be beautiful before it works hard to keep me alive.
Did you know how hard your body works to keep you alive? I once watched a video of how the white blood cells defend the body from outsiders like harmful bacteria. It was insane! The kidney works very hard to filter out the body from toxins, the lungs with respiration, the heart that beats, the spine that ensures we can stand, the nervous system that keeps our brain connected to our consciousness, and so much more. Before body neutrality, I didn’t take note of my body in this way. Now I do.
I can stand in front of my mirror and dance because I know how much my body takes care of me. Even when I don’t love it, it loves me, and this is the most amazing part—the realisation that my body takes care of me regardless of my state of mind towards it. Even when I didn’t think it was beautiful, it went on working to keep me alive. We only hear of the love we should have towards our bodies, but I think we should start thinking about the love our bodies have for us.
Deep gratitude for my body saved my self-esteem. I don’t really care about my breasts anymore because I know how hard my skin elasticity works to protect me from skin damage, so of course, my breasts won’t be perky since my skin is elastic. My stomach houses all my organs, from my ovaries to my kidney to my lungs, bladder, pelvis, and so much more. So I am grateful to my stomach for being a worthy home to these essential organs. I diet and work out from day to day to help my body grow muscle to take care of me more.
Another thing I realised from adopting the body neutrality mindset is that the appearance of my body is not the most important thing about me, and this way, I redirect my brain into using other wonderful facets of my existence as a measure of my self-worth. I am a good writer; I can crochet; I am a distinction-grade student; I have a family that loves me; I can design; I can do things I set my mind on and do them well; I believe in goodwill and try to spread it through access to information I think others might find useful; I am smart, and I could go on and on. I am all of these things and I deserve to be measured by them rather than with my body that changes as easily as the weather.
I mean, if I love my body today, what if ovulation starts and I break out with pimples? What happens then?
I am acne-prone, and body neutrality has helped me recognise that even with acne, I’m still a full human being who deserves adoration from myself and from others. This is why I’m not too obsessed with skincare; my body changes too much to seek validation from having clear skin.
As a person, I’m inherently worthy, regardless of my appearance. And I don’t have to love my body for it to be worthy; my body is worthy because it is a body, and by extension, as long as I am a person in a body, I am worthy. You too!
So I would like to thank my body: my legs because they support me, my arms for always being by my side, my fingers because I can always count on them, and my hips because they don’t lie (you see what I did there?). I’m very grateful to you all and I appreciate the constant effort to keep me well and alive, even on the days when I overeat or don’t sleep or don’t work out or get caught in the rain, you still take care of me. I’m deeply grateful.
And I promise to always help my body by keeping a healthy regulation of food, exercise, and mental well-being.
About the Writer:
Idayat Jinadu is a brand strategist and PhD student working on the culture of waste disposal and its effect on environmental security for her dissertation. She is inspired by impact and wants to create things that matter for people who need them to be free, liberated, and who they truly want to be. She is on the writing track for the 2025 Adventures Creators Programme.
