Jun 6, 2025
As the weather warms up, the messages get louder. Ads, influencers, and casual conversations often reinforce the idea that some bodies are more “ready” for summer than others—as if comfort, joy, or rest have to be earned.
For many people, summer brings up more than just sunshine and social plans. It can bring discomfort or anxiety about clothing, self-comparison, or how safe it feels to be visible. This may be especially common for those who are navigating histories of body shame, eating disorders, chronic illness, disability, or trauma. With fewer layers and more social activity, it may feel harder to disconnect from body image-related thoughts. The sense of being seen—whether by others or by ourselves—can be uncomfortable or even distressing.
These struggles are real and they don’t reflect personal failure. They reflect the pressure to meet narrow, often harmful expectations about what bodies should look like, how they should behave, and which ones are considered “acceptable.”
Body image isn’t just about how someone feels about their appearance. It’s shaped over time by messages from media, healthcare systems, and personal experience. Experiences like weight stigma, racism, ableism, and gender norms can significantly affect how people come to see and relate to their bodies.
Understanding this context is important. It helps shift the conversation away from “fixing” our bodies and toward understanding what safety, care, and dignity might look like in a world that privileges certain bodies over others.
There’s no single solution for body image struggles, especially when they’re connected to long-standing experiences of harm, stigma, or exclusion. But it may be helpful to approach this season with a focus on self-awareness, compassion, and small, intentional practices that support your well-being.
Some possibilities to explore:
There is often pressure to love your body or to move quickly toward acceptance. That may not always feel realistic for everyone. For many people, especially those who’ve experienced stigma or harm, self-acceptance isn’t a feeling—it’s a slow, often non-linear process. It might involve simply noticing what your body needs, or speaking to yourself with a little more gentleness than last time. It might involve a shift towards neutrality.
Self-acceptance doesn’t mean never struggling. It means making space for complexity without adding shame on top.
The summer season can bring up complicated feelings about your body and how you move through the world. It’s not unusual to feel discomfort or uncertainty, and there’s no one way to navigate it.
Your body is worthy of care and respect, no matter what it looks like, because it’s yours. Honouring that can be a meaningful part of building a more compassionate relationship with yourself.
Being present—at the beach, the park, a family gathering, or anywhere else—doesn’t need to be earned. You don’t need permission to take up space as you are.
It’s normal to feel many things at once. Making room for that complexity is part of being human.
At VOX Mental Health, we understand that conversations about body image, self-acceptance, and belonging are deeply personal, and often shaped by lived experiences, identity, and context. Whether you're exploring these themes for the first time or returning to them with a new perspective, we’re here to listen.
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