Move Over, Marie Kondo, Here’s How You "Bopo" Your Home
We all talk about treating our minds with body positivity, but what about our homes?
While we’re busy working on our interiors, we often forget the very real effects our exterior lives have on our recovery from diet culture. From your mood, to how you live day-to-day, the way your environment impacts your feelings cannot be understated. So, take us on a tour through your home and we’ll give you all the tips you need to help redesign with your mental health in mind.
Bedroom
The easiest place to start is undoubtedly your bedroom. The list of changes you could make here are endless, but some of our favourites are right here for you. Start by clearing out, or working to make peace with, all old photos of yourself around the space. Instead, replace them or add to them with new or more current photos of yourself, and photos of all your family and friends. Seeing your biggest cheerleaders right there with you every day will help keep you on track.
A great next step is to throw out all your ‘one day’ clothes from when you were struggling the most. While they could, in theory, potentially, in an emergency, fit you again in the future, they probably fit a size your body was never meant to be. Instead of holding onto their memory, donate them somewhere new and have peace in the knowledge that they’re being worn by someone who hasn’t had to hurt themselves to make them fit.
Make your space your own, and don’t be afraid to claim it. Decorate exactly how you want it, use it as a space for calm meditation or for doing all the work you need on yourself, and fill it with uplifting reminders of who you are now. Make it a challenge to cover the edge of your mirror with love notes to yourself – little post-it notes with quotes you like and body-positive affirmations to keep in mind the next time you’ll be looking at your body.
BATHROOM
In your bathroom, there are three key changes that’ll make the most difference. The first is throwing out that damned scale if it’s still lingering around. Weight has no bearing on your health, or even on your looks, so tell the disordered voice encouraging you to keep it to get lost along with the rest of diet culture. Sorry, not sorry, we don’t need them anymore!
Second is getting a hygiene and practical self-care routine that works for you. Make your bathroom your peaceful place to get back in touch with your body’s most basic needs, and use things like showers, baths and even washing at the sink to reinforce a belief in your ability to take care of yourself. And lastly, just like the notes up in your room encourage you to do, we’re working on keeping that change in mirror-attitude going. When you look in the mirror, focus only the things you find easiest to like. If you find yourself slipping into old negative thought patterns, then step away from the mirror and change the direction of your attention – making the mirror a place where only happy, helpful thoughts are allowed.
KITCHEN
Your kitchen might feel like the hardest place to make body-peace friendly, especially with the integral part it plays in your relationship with food. It might surprise you to know it’s actually one of the easiest, and most beneficial, places to make more body positive within your home. Starting with your utensils, why not treat yourself to a new – or DIY customised – set that gets you excited to eat with them. Cute bowls, tupperware and pans can come after if you find this really helps.
Try ditching all the weighing equipment and packaging from foods you can. If you remove the ability to keep track of your food choices, then it’s far easier to break free of the habit. This also helps ensure no one you live with, or anyone that visits, can make comments on the nutritional amounts of your food. Having as much of the food you like in your home as possible also helps with the practice of intuitive eating, so grab everything you like within your budget at your next food shop. Lastly, don’t keep your food separated by what’s ‘good’ and ‘bad’ any longer, as the idea that any food is inherently bad couldn’t be more wrong. Instead, keep your favourite foods at the front of your cupboards and those you eat the least at the back.
LOUNGE
Living rooms are commonly the largest, most open-plan spaces in any home. But what happens if you’re sharing that space with family, guests or friends? One easy way to make your lounge functional – as both a communal space, and one that respects your body boundaries – is to throw out all those old magazines strewn about the place. If there are any that others wish to keep, encourage them to take them back to their rooms and keep them there for now. Have your lounge be a space untouched by the negativity of traditional media, and instead collect only magazines and books that make you feel good when you read them.
This way, you can claim this space as one to solely work on yourself, your purpose and on finding the things that matter to, and improve, your life. Negative thoughts on your body are banned from this space, and when they arise (as they so often tend to) take yourself off to a different part of the house – be this your newly peaceful bedroom or your landing, perhaps. Ride out the emotions here, before returning to your calm time in the lounge once they’ve passed. Decorating the room in a way that allows yourself some sensory downtime – think candles, blankets, fairy lights and incense – is a great way to support this, and makes any house feel more like a home.
EXTRAS
The upgrades you can make don’t end there!
Think of your house as a whole, and implement changes that truly encourage you to feel at home in your own skin. A great way to establish your place as diet-talk free is to ban all talk of bodies from the get-go. Tell your guests, and those you live with, to save conversations around weight, body image and food for outside the house, and don’t feel obliged to engage in any if they start. Your space is yours, and those who care for you and your recovery will always respect that.
Bringing yourself back in touch with nature, even when indoors, helps with learning the basics of body respect. We all know the ‘every flower blooms differently’ sayings by now, and filling your home with as many beautiful, unique plants as you can is the best way to practice the message those words preach. Appreciating all that nature does can help you appreciate all it’s done for you, and all it did in creating your own wondrous body.
Art is another way of exploring this, as filling your home with affordable, body positive artwork can be incredibly uplifting when you don’t see yourself represented much elsewhere. Hang up empowering quotes and images, and get your hands on as many ceramic statues of women with your body type as you can. Collect artwork that makes you feel seen, and that sees you right back.
Your home should be a place to create new and joyful memories, rather than a place that allows you to dwell on past negative ones. Small changes in your household will see small changes in you, and they all add up. I guess this begs the question: which room are you starting on first?
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