It's that time of year again! It's hot outside, and that means pool season has officially begun. For many people, the pool is synonymous with discomfort, shame, comparing their body to others and feeling bad about how they look.
For a few months before summer, the ads and jokes about getting that 'summer body' ready start pouring in. In every joke there's a little bit of truth and in this case that little bit of truth rankles. This pursuit of a 'summer body' plays into the idea that there is an 'ideal body' that we really all ought to have. (According to this rhetoric, we really would be better off having this body in the winter too, but our less-than bodies are covered up in the winter so, it's less problematic).
As you probably know by now, if you're reading this, I don't believe in that. Science doesn't believe in that. Research shows that even if we all ate the same food and moved the same way we would still have different bodies. Somehow, as a society we accept that people have different hair colors, eye colors, shoe sizes, heights, skin colors.... But when it comes to body type- there's one that's best.
Does that actually make sense?
You want to tell me that one body type is more beautiful because society says it's so?
Ok. I hear that. Trends come and go as society deems it should be.
But how much mental and physical anguish is reasonable to subject ourselves to because we want to conform to society's standards? And also, I think we'd probably feel less badly about our bodies if we accepted the pursuit of thinness as purely a vanity game, instead of making it about 'health'.
Your body is less easy to manipulate to look the way you want it to, in the long run, than the weight loss industry has led you to believe.
The ramifications of trying to manipulate it are much more all encompassing and long lasting than the weight loss industry has allowed you to recognize.
(Otherwise we wouldn't buy their diets and weight loss products and they'd be losing money fast... And good marketing is tremendously powerful.)
Imagine if you could go to the pool and not feel self conscious about your body.
True, you may wish your body was different. Thinner, more toned, more like the image of what society has been presenting as beautiful and healthy for so long.
You may also wish you were taller, or shorter, or smarter, or richer.
Imagine if you could feel self conscious about your body and not allow that to make you feel badly about yourself.
Imagine if you accepted--if everybody accepted--that the way our body looks says absolutely nothing about the way we take care of ourselves or what kind of habits we practice or what type of person we are.
It may feel like a pipe dream that everyone would accept that, and not judge people by their bodies, but what if each person reading this committed to trying to adopt this mindset?
What if each person reading this committed to not judging their own body, or anyone else's? What if we all work on adopting the mantra that "we know absolutely nothing about a person's health or habits from looking at their bodies" and remind ourselves that people can pursue and maintain healthy habits no matter their body size (yourself included)?
Next time you put on a bathingsuit, sure--wear one that makes you feel more comfortable. That is body kindness, and will help you not focus so much on your body, which is ultimately the goal. But when those negative-body thoughts crop up, as they inevitably do, challenge them, and give yourself and those around you the space to enjoy some fun in the sun, judgement free.
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