By now, most have heard of body positivity, but the concept of body neutrality is not quite as
well known. However, it might be easier to practice for some. If your someone who isn’t
particularly inspired by gratitude practices or you don’t appreciate being told to be positive all
the time, this might be the movement for you. Body neutrality is about ratcheting down the
exhortations to love your physical being and gives you permission to stop thinking in those
terms at all.

Instead of thinking about concepts like beauty and love, you might shift to thinking more in
terms of function. You can appreciate what your body does for you without having to feel like
you’re also a cheerleader for it. While both approaches are focused on taking the emphasis
away from unattainable ideals and work to discourage perfectionism, neutrality is often easier
to achieve than positivity. Keep reading for more on how to shift into this mindset and how it
might enhance your life.

Find an Activity You Love

Everyone knows that feeling of getting really involved in something, whether it’s a game, a
book, a movie or a conversation, and losing track of other things, including your worries. This is
essentially the idea when it comes to finding an activity that you love to do, whether it’s
running, playing pickleball, tai chi, yoga, swimming or just taking a walk. Using your body to do
something that you enjoy helps you shift your focus away from how you look and focus on what
you’re capable of.

It can also help you genuinely appreciate that however you may feel about your physical
shortcomings, you’re able to do this thing that you love. In turn, rather than saying over and
over, “I love my legs” and finding it only makes you think about how much you hate your legs,
you can switch to fact-based statements. For example, “My legs carried me five miles today”
might feel a lot more natural than insisting that you love them.

Consider Cosmetic Changes

For some, body positivity can backfire by making you feel like you aren’t allowed to want to
change anything. However, with neutrality, there’s room for cosmetic surgery. What you may
want to do here is dig deep into the reasons that you’re considering surgery. Maybe you’d like to tighten up loose skin after a significant weight loss. Maybe you’ve felt that a certain feature has always hindered your ability to be entirely unselfconscious. These are obviously things that you can live with because that’s exactly what you’re doing, but if you feel that surgery would better reflect who you really are, there’s no reason not to go ahead with it. In fact, it might even help your body feel more functional, which is the whole idea behind this neutrality.

One obstacle for many people when considering cosmetic surgery is cost. Like most, you may
be dealing with increasing healthcare costs and insurance coverage that’s inconsistent. High-
deductible health plans can leave you paying out of pocket and never seeing the benefit of the
actual plan itself. Even good plans may not cover the exact type of surgery you’re after, leaving
you to choose between not getting it done at all and medical debt. Health care organizations
don’t want to deal with debt any more than you do, and there coping with their own
challenges, including billing department costs and revenue cycle management. Utilizing patient payment financing offers a solution that benefits both patients and providers. It allows you to
move forward with the cosmetic procedure that you want while your providers get paid. You
can apply online and find out quickly whether you’re approved.

Stop Striving

One of the best things about the movement toward neutrality instead of positivity is that it
allows you to stop trying to constantly reach for something and simply be. In fact, if you think
about it, there’s an element of the positivity movement that forces you to think about your
body all the time because you’re always trying to remind yourself that its beautiful. With
neutrality, you can finally just relax.

You can think about other things. If even something like “My body is strong and useful” feels
like an affirmation too far for you, you can simply shift your attention elsewhere, whether that’s
focusing on your job, a hobby, your family or something else. For many, this is a more effective
approach to reducing the time that you spend in negative rumination.

Get Clothes and Accessories You Like

Even if you don’t enjoy shopping, you might like having new clothes. Even if you don’t care about clothes, what about shoes, jewelry or a new bag? The key is to pick out things that you
feel genuinely express who you are. When your wearing a pair of boots that you love or a
colorful coat that demonstrates your creative side, your moving beyond the idea that your
appearance is supposed to conform to a particular standard.

Instead, your using how you look to feel more confident about who you are. If you aren’t
entirely sure what your style is or what to wear, you might want to consider looking into a
personal stylist or shopper. There are also apps and online services that can connect you to
both human and AI powered stylists that can help you get into the clothes that feel like you
even if you aren’t sure what that is yet.

Let the Thoughts Come

There can be something almost meditative about practicing body neutrality. In meditation, you
learn to observe emotions and thoughts without attaching yourself to them. With neutrality,
you can do this as well. Maybe you’ve said to yourself, “I need to lose weight.” In the past, this
might have led to a spiral of negative self-talk.

Positivity might have encouraged you to say something like, “I am wonderful just as I am!” This
may have felt unnatural. With neutrality, you can simply observe that you’d like to lose some
weight and leave the thought there. You don't have to attach any value or emotion to the idea,
either negative or positive.