Body Neutral Compliments For When You Wanna Love On Your Friends Without Reinforcing Diet Culture

Compliments are the best. They’re a gift you can give a loved one (or even sometimes even more meaningful, a stranger) that cost you nothing and can mean everything.

Praising weight loss or body size, however, can do more harm than good.

10 Compliments That Have Nothing To Do With Body Size

1) Your smile brightens the room

2) Your laugh is contagious

3) You’ve gotten so strong (This works because it ties to a skill, not a look. Try to stay away from small/big, sculpted/flabby dichotomies)

4) Your energy is magnetic, you’re not afraid to take up space

5) The way you listen really makes me feel heard

6) You’re so easy to open up to

7) You’re excellent at your work- you love it and it shows

8) You always show up for the people you love and it means a lot to me

9) I always feel like I can be myself when we’re together

10) You have such great style- your outfit looks so YOU (not “that dress makes you look so thin!!”

Conclusion

I could go on and on, and I don’t even know your friend! The point is, compliments that acknowledge who the person is a on a fundamental level- not what they look like, will always make a bigger impact, and avoid all the potentially damaging subtext of an appearance based comment. If you do catch yourself making a body based comment, don’t beat yourself up, like any habit, it’ll take time to break, but trying adding in another compliment that doesn’t rely on physical appearance to make it really count.

The more compassionate we are with ourselves, the more compassionate we are with others. I created Helen Phelan Studio so that each workout could serve as moving meditation and self care on top of nourishing the body. Check it out for 10 days, totally free!