3 Ways to Respect Your Body

Written by Michelle Shelton

December 26, 2023

The human body is one of the most intricate, complex, even miraculous organisms on earth. From the inner workings of our nervous systems to the cognitions and comprehensions of our brains, to the coordination and balance between organ systems, to the flexibility of our limbs and dexterity of our fingers, to our interactions with the external world through our five senses, the list can go on and on. The human body is simply miraculous. Yet in our fat-phobic culture, we often disparage the body and reduce its value and worthiness to how it looks, or the size it may be at any given moment.  

When we reduce the worth of the body to its shape or size, it is easy to lose sight of its worth and potential, and instead mistreat it and disconnect from its wisdom, intuition, signals, and needs. We mistreat and disconnect from our bodies every time we starve it to shrink it, or every time we criticize it based on looks. It is even common to mistreat it by blaming our bodies for the meanness of other people or police our weight to avoid judgment from others, as if we somehow deserve this meanness because of our size. Instead of standing up against the mean treatment, we accept it and blame ourselves.

Respecting your body is about reconnecting to its inherent strength, wisdom, and wonder while rejecting these cultural reductions of shape and size. Reconnecting with our bodies is about rebuilding a relationship. And strong, healthy relationships are always built on a foundation of trust and care. Critical or mean thoughts undermine this trust and fracture the relationship. 

Respecting your body means treating it with dignity while holding the intention of meeting its basic needs. You don’t have to like every part of it to respect it. If you have a pattern of body criticism or even loathing, you may find focusing first on respect is an easier entry point in rebuilding your relationship with your body. It may feel like a stretch to love, or even like it now. But you can choose to respect it now.

You can begin to respect your body now by practicing these 3 things:

1. Quit Body Checking

We are probably all guilty of playing the “Body Checking” game – where you enter the room and immediately ask, “How does my body compare to the other people in this room?” This game is a slippery slope. While you may have fleeting moments of superiority, comparison always leads to more insecurity and ultimately feeling worse. 

Body comparison also leads to more body disconnection as you are driven to make food choices based on your perception of other people’s bodies and food choices. In contrast, we reconnect to our inner wisdom when we direct our attention to our body's signals and our own needs. 

2. Stop Body Bashing

How many times a day do you criticize a part of your body? Try keeping track for a day or a few hours. Every time you criticize parts of your body that you don’t like, you fuel the war against your body. It can also perpetuate the comparison game – how you talk to yourself becomes a mirror to how you see and think about others. Stop the cycle by first changing how you see and talk about your own body. When you catch yourself body bashing, reframe the statement to one of gratitude and respect.

3. View Your Body as An Instrument, Not an Ornament

Place your focus on what you can do rather than how you look. Notice and appreciate all the ways your body makes your life better, how it serves you, and how it allows you to serve others. Pay attention to its strengths, its talents, its resilience, its potential.

It is normal to feel uncomfortable, even worried about letting go of body criticism. It may feel like you are letting yourself off the hook, worried that you will fall into complacency and stop caring all together. But very much the opposite, respecting your body is not about letting go of care. It is about letting go of judgment and disconnection so that you can truly care for your body and its needs.