Think about the last time you looked in the mirror. What did you notice first?
Maybe it was a new wrinkle, the way your clothes fit or a part of your body that doesn’t look quite the way it used to. Or perhaps you finished a workout and found yourself thinking about the weight you couldn’t lift or the exercise you struggled to complete, rather than everything you accomplished.
We’re remarkably good at noticing what we don’t like about our bodies. Appreciating what they do for us? That doesn’t always come as naturally.
And for many women, that relationship becomes even more complicated during midlife. Hormonal changes, shifts in body composition, injuries and the natural aging process can leave us feeling disconnected from bodies that suddenly seem unfamiliar.
But what if we changed the conversation?
What if, instead of focusing so much on what our bodies look like or what they can’t do, we spent a little more time appreciating what they can do?
It turns out that this shift in perspective has a name: body appreciation. And research suggests it may play an important role in how we feel about ourselves.
Related: 5 Simple Ways to Practice Gratitude in Your Daily Life
Why We’re So Hard on Our Bodies
From an early age, we’re surrounded by messages about what our bodies should look like. There’s constant pressure to lose weight, look younger and meet an ever-changing set of beauty standards. Even fitness messaging, which should focus on health, strength and what our bodies can do, too often reinforces those expectations.
It’s easy to internalize those expectations.
And as we get older, the pressure doesn’t necessarily disappear. Instead, we’re introduced to an entirely new set of things we’re supposed to fight: wrinkles, gray hair, belly fat, sagging skin and other normal signs of aging.
For women navigating perimenopause and menopause, changes in hormones, muscle mass and fat distribution can make those pressures particularly frustrating. The habits that once worked may no longer produce the same results, and it’s easy to feel as though your body is somehow letting you down.
But our bodies aren’t failing us simply because they’re changing.
They’re adapting to different stages of life, responding to the demands we place on them and continuing to do an extraordinary amount of work every day.
Maybe it’s time we gave them a little more credit.
The Science of Body Appreciation
Body appreciation is more than simply liking how you look. In a 2015 study published in Body Image, researchers examined body appreciation as a component of positive body image. Their work emphasizes accepting, respecting and valuing your body rather than defining your relationship with it solely through appearance.
Importantly, body appreciation doesn’t require you to love every part of your appearance. You can have insecurities, experience frustration with physical changes and still recognize that your body deserves respect and care.
Research has linked higher levels of body appreciation with greater psychological well-being and more positive attitudes toward the body. But researchers have also asked another important question: Can we improve body image by changing what we focus on?
One promising approach involves body functionality, or appreciating what your body allows you to do and experience rather than concentrating primarily on how it looks.
In that 2015 controlled trial, researchers studied 81 young women who were dissatisfied with their bodies. Participants who completed writing exercises focused on body functionality reported greater improvements in body appreciation, appearance satisfaction and functionality satisfaction than those in a control group. They also reported less self-objectification, or viewing their bodies primarily in terms of appearance.
A larger follow-up study published in 2018 involving 261 women found similar benefits. Participants who completed functionality-focused writing exercises reported improvements in body appreciation and satisfaction that were still evident one month later.
These studies involved younger adult women, so we can’t assume the findings apply equally to women at every stage of life. Still, they offer encouraging evidence that learning to appreciate what our bodies do may help us develop a healthier relationship with them.
The takeaway isn’t that a few positive thoughts will erase years of body dissatisfaction. Rather, shifting our attention toward our bodies’ abilities and experiences may help create a more balanced, compassionate perspective.
And that relationship matters.
Your Body Is More Than What You See in the Mirror
Consider everything your body does for you on an ordinary day.
Your legs carry you from one place to another. Your arms lift, reach and hold. Your muscles help you maintain balance, climb stairs and get up from a chair. Your heart and lungs work continuously to keep you going.
And beyond those everyday functions, your body allows you to experience the world. You can feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, enjoy a delicious meal, laugh with friends, listen to music or feel the comfort of a hug.
These aren’t necessarily things we stop to appreciate. Most of the time, we don’t give them much thought at all.
Until something changes.
An injury, illness or physical limitation can suddenly make us aware of abilities we once took for granted. And while those experiences can be frustrating or difficult, they can also change how we think about what our bodies do for us.
Of course, not everyone has the same physical abilities, and those abilities can change throughout our lives. Appreciating your body doesn’t have to mean celebrating strength, speed or athletic performance.
It can mean recognizing how your body adapts, what it allows you to experience or simply the ways it continues to support you through everyday life.
Your body is more than its appearance. And its value isn’t determined by how much it can lift, how far it can run or how closely it matches an ideal.
You Can Appreciate Your Body and Still Want to Improve It
Here’s where body appreciation sometimes gets misunderstood.
Being grateful for your body doesn’t mean giving up on your fitness goals. It doesn’t mean you have to be satisfied with your current strength, endurance or mobility. And it certainly doesn’t mean you should ignore changes in your health.
You can appreciate your body and still want to get stronger. You can respect your body while working to improve your cardiovascular fitness, build muscle or develop better balance. You can acknowledge what your body does well while recognizing areas where you want to improve.
The difference is often in the motivation behind those goals.
Are you exercising because you’re unhappy with your body and feel you need to fix it? Or are you training because you want to take care of yourself, build strength and maintain the ability to do the things you enjoy?
Those motivations aren’t always mutually exclusive, and most of us have experienced a little of both.
But shifting the emphasis toward what you want your body to do, rather than simply how you want it to look, can change your relationship with exercise.
A strength workout becomes an investment in your ability to lift, carry and move confidently. A mobility session becomes a way to maintain freedom of movement. A walk becomes an opportunity to enjoy being outside rather than another obligation to burn calories.
And rest becomes part of taking care of your body, not something you have to earn.
That’s a different way of thinking about fitness. One that makes room for progress, ambition and appreciation at the same time.
Five Ways to Practice Body Gratitude
You don’t need to stand in front of a mirror repeating affirmations or convince yourself to love every part of your body.
Start with something simpler.
1. Notice what your body did well today. Maybe you completed a challenging workout, walked farther than usual or carried all the groceries inside in one trip. It doesn’t have to be a major accomplishment. Give yourself credit for what your body helped you do.
2. Change the way you evaluate your workouts. Instead of focusing exclusively on what you couldn’t do, acknowledge what went well. Did you maintain good form? Try something new? Show up even when your motivation was low? Progress isn’t always measured in heavier weights or faster times.
3. Appreciate the everyday things. Think about the movements and sensations you rarely notice: stretching when you wake up, taking a deep breath, enjoying a warm shower or feeling your feet on the ground. These small experiences are part of what it means to live in your body.
4. Pay attention to how you talk to yourself. When you catch yourself criticizing your appearance or comparing your body to someone else’s, consider whether you’d speak to a friend the same way. You don’t have to replace every negative thought with a positive one. Sometimes a more neutral, respectful perspective is enough.
5. Recognize that rest is a form of appreciation, too. Your body isn’t a machine, and taking care of it involves more than exercise. Getting enough sleep, eating nourishing food, allowing time for recovery and respecting your limits are all ways of acknowledging what your body needs.
A Little Gratitude for Your Body
As you work through our Notice the Good challenge this month, take a moment to appreciate your body, too.
Maybe it’s the strength you’ve built, the walk you enjoyed this morning or the way your body has carried you through a difficult time.
You don’t have to love everything about your body to recognize the many ways it supports you. And you don’t have to stop working toward your goals to appreciate where you are today.
Sometimes, noticing the good starts with appreciating the body you’re living in.
