How To Start A Body Positivity Pact With Your BFF

Make co-compliments a routine

There are plenty of times when you may be thinking something about your friend, but forget or neglect to say it out loud. Now is the time to break that bad habit. In fact, for your body positivity pact, we suggest complimenting each other every single day. Each morning when you wake up, tell her something that you admire, that inspires you, that you cherish — anything that makes her more beautiful to you. It could be how driven she is in her career, how luminous her skin is, or how patient she is with her kids. Regardless, these compliments will start to build, and you’ll each get a little lift right at the start of your day, setting you up for a body positive mindset.

The compliments can range vastly, but be careful of any body-related comments. If your BFF has legs for days or spectacular hips and you feel like she should know it, definitely don’t hold back. But be wary of only focusing on how her body makes her beautiful — the idea here is to reinforce to each other that beauty isn’t only skin deep, after all.

Move together

Of course, having a workout buddy helps you to stay motivated. But for a body positivity pact, the key is to make efforts to exercise together for the right reasons. In other words, there are no weight loss goals here. Instead, you should aim to engage in activities you actually enjoy (whether that’s dancing or Pilates), and do so with a purpose. In fact, we advise stating your intention before you start hitting the gym or going for runs together: We are moving our bodies because _____ (to feel strong, to elevate our mood, to explore a new part of the city, etc.)

You can even look for classes that are specifically designed to reinforce a pact like yours. For example, Body Positive Yoga was started by Amber Karnes to help women “make peace with their bodies and build unshakable confidence.” You can even join her Body Positive Clubhouse to get access to new yoga practice videos, body positivity challenges and other related content every month.

Stay social

There’s no doubt that social media can actually pose challenges to body positivity. But if you go about using these networks the right way, they can actually help. As part of your pact, go through your Instagram feed, identify any accounts that make you feel anything negative about your body — and promptly hit “unfollow.” Then, seek out some new body positive accounts to replace them.

For example, one account we love is any.body_co. BFFs Georgia Gibbs and Kate Wasley were shocked to receive some body-shaming comments on a photo they posted, so the duo decided to launch any.body_co. The mission? To promote the message that a woman’s worth goes far beyond her size or shape, hence their trendy hashtag #LoveAnyBODY. Unsurprisingly, the account has amassed more than 266K followers.

One last tip: Don’t forget that there may be times during your pact that your BFF need you to pick them up (or vice versa). That’s why it’s a great idea to promise each other that any time you have a critical, shameful or otherwise negative thought about your body, you’ll reach out to your pact partner for a lift.