Body Neutrality –

What is that?

Giving clients and students permission to perceive embodiment as more than one thing is not an aspect of holistic coaching that I take for granted. To perceive embodiment as both a physical and a spiritual experience, and finding the words to bridge the gap between living in a body and having faith in something bigger than ourselves, is when this “work” becomes more meaningful for me. Whatever your spiritual beliefs, if you can look down at your hands and see more than skin and bones, but also stories, accomplishments, and glimpses of your ancestors, perhaps you can see that sometimes a body is a body and sometimes it is a living and breathing prayer.  

While science-based research in wellness is imperative, the easiest way I can think of to explain body neutrality in one sentence is through a prayer you may have seen burnt onto a piece of wood in someone’s kitchen, heard at a meeting, or more realistically on Facebook:   

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.   

Body neutrality means resisting the culturally created urge to view the way the body looks as inherently positive or negative, or trying to control aspects of the way we look to the detriment of our mental health or well-being.  

Since we have long since discredited the idea that looking a certain way equates to being healthy, we can start creating workout plans that make sense based on our bio-individuality and may consequentially have aesthetic results. 

The concept of body neutrality was introduced by my Yoga teachers Stevi Gongora and Erin Kelly of Authentic Movements. Since our training in 2021 took place online and we spent a fair amount of time recording ourselves practicing with our phones, it was a welcomed perspective.

Digging around I found the first person to talk about this concept was Anne Poirier, a Certified Intuitive Eating and Body Confidence Coach, Eating Disorder Specialist, Speaker, and author of The Joyful Body written in 2021. 

In The Joyful Body, she writes: “The key to flourishing- regardless of your current weight or size- is to feel joy. Every system in the female body works best in this state- including the endocrine system, the immune system, and the central nervous system”.  

Now that we’ve observed how much burnout and shame can result from the unrealistic pressures of the “supermom” or “boss babe” archetypes culturally and financially imposed on women, I hope we can move towards more realistic frameworks for self-acceptance, self-love, discipline, and structure. While I generally find new concepts and trendy language in wellness to be short-lived, I believe body neutrality is a worthwhile concept within health and coaching and I hope it sticks around.          

If we can approach exercise as a tool for feeling good rather than looking good, we may get the aesthetic results we’ve been looking for, while also creating sustainable fitness and eating routines.  

I invite you to think about your posture and body type.  Are you hypermobile? Super strong? What do you want to work towards based on what is possible and what is not worth pursuing or trying to control? Feel free to take a few minutes to reflect and write down your thoughts…..