Not only has 2022 been a challenging year for the entirety of the United Kingdom thanks to the cost of living crisis, instability within our government, the Ukraine war and the ongoing pandemic - among a million other things - but it has been hands down the worst year for my body confidence, which doesn’t exactly bode well when you class yourself as a body confident advocate.
Having lived my life online since I was 16, documenting everything on Instagram and my blog, it took me years to cultivate a body-positive image and I have always been open and honest with my journey to self-acceptance. Thanks to the pandemic and social media, I learned to love my body the most in lockdown, so it was accustomed that being thrown back into 'normal life' would wreak havoc with my mental health and perception of my body - and it’s safe to say it did just that.
In 2022 I gained new stretch marks for the first time since my early teens, noticed cellulite more, cried over my reflection in the mirror and felt strange in clothes I had previously been confident in. I’ve looked at my naked body and wished it looked different, feared what anybody would think if they ever saw it (I’ve been single and celibate all of my life), and constantly been thinking about how I can alter it to fit in with the modern world more. I guess you could say that the past 11-12 months have been complete hell for somebody who preaches about body acceptance.
See, 2020 and the lockdowns we endured really helped me and so many others cultivate huge body confidence – which is why it feels so strange to be at war with my own body once again. But with life back to normal, socialising firmly back on the agenda, bikinis to wear in the summer and the pressure to look good creeping back into our lives – women seem to be being reduced to trends once more.
Wreaking havoc with our mental health, it seems as though past obsessions and new internet trends like “heroin chic” – where thin is in and curves are out; and “that girl” – where from the second we rise at 5am we’re in the gym and living a perfectly constructed and scheduled life, are drowning out the body acceptance content that dominated almost three years ago. Remember all of those upbeat videos where we celebrated our bodies instead of turning them into objects of perfection?
Well, instead of upbeat trends that allow us to cultivate healthy self acceptance habits, in 2022 we’ve been constantly and subliminally hit with images of so-called perfection and societal beauty standards. Whether it’s a trend we see on social media, or a reality star on a chat show who has gone from a curvaceous hourglass figure that was once aspired to, to heroin chic, thin and enhancements reversed in a matter of months – it seems we’re all being fed body trends when women’s bodies shouldn’t be reduced to such a thing.
Isn’t anyone curious about – I don’t know – how or what I'm really doing, as opposed to how I look in a pair of jeans?
But I’d be silly to think I was the only one who has had a tough time with body acceptance in the past year or so. According to the Forbes Health-Ipsos survey, 60% of people asked said their body image didn’t change throughout the pandemic, but out of those who said it did – 27% said they became more concerned with it. This rings true for Carly Rowena, founder of Moodment and author of My Beautiful Body, who told GLAMOUR that she has found body image expectations to have increased during and post-Covid “so much”. She added: “And, mix it with the new busy lifestyles [and] it’s only natural that people are going to be more self-conscious about their appearance.”
With trends like the healthy, hot and that girl morning routines becoming popular on the likes of TikTok and Instagram, Carly believes that this “just makes expectations so much higher than before,” adding,“there’s only so much you can do in a day, so how can you be expected to meditate, journal, cold bath, walk, gym, brunch? Impossible.”
And she’s right. With almost one million posts under #thatgirl on Instagram and infinite scrolls of videos under the same tag on TikTok, it’s highly likely that we’ve all been subliminally conditioned to feel like we need to look and act a certain way. But it’s not just the internet we have to blame, it’s our mindsets and the way we react to certain trends and people’s perceptions - as well as our own reflections.
Stepping into 2023, I’m determined to love accept my body more, and if you’re reading this – chances are you’re looking to do the same. So, first of all let us just work towards accepting ourselves rather than loving, but what exactly can we do to be proactive about appreciating our incredible vessels? “Loving yourself is a daily journey, knowing what makes you feel good can help you focus on adding those things into the day,” Carly explains. “For example, making something nutritious leaves you feeling good from the inside out and removing things that trigger you.” Triggers might include specific social media platforms, watching certain television shows or movies, full length mirrors, clothing that feels tight, and people and situations that revolve around weight, appearance or dieting.
She's edited a recent music video after controversy.
Carly added: “It’s OK to have moments where you do not like your body, or have parts of your body that you love less than others. You don’t have to be ok with every aspect of yourself but working on being kind to yourself and accepting who you are will enable you to find joy in so many things: exercise becomes something you do because you like moving, food becomes something you eat because you want to, clothes become fun to wear because they make you feel happy and good from inside out.”
So, as I wave goodbye to 2022 and say hello to a brand new year, I’m going to be practising body neutrality more, which is the act of focusing on body acceptance rather than self love. Carly explains that it’s where “you eat healthy and exercise not to improve your aesthetic but to achieve better health and fitness” rather than body positivity “where you focus on the physical aspects of yourself which you may have previously disliked”. It’s time that I - and you - embrace all of the incredible things that life has to offer without looking in the mirror and obsessing over things we wish we could change, and instead looking at them with a neutral eye and thanking our bodies for what they do for us.
