The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

by Sonya Renee Taylor

are forced to deal with the discomfort of new action. Think of radical self-love as resistance training against our decades-old, tight, calcified thoughts. Adopting actions that promote radical self-love is comparable to working a muscle that has not been moved in years.

Through the power of thought and action we become who we have always been; we enter what feels like a new way of being in our bodies and in the world but is actually a return to our inherent state of being: radical self-love.

adopting a radical self-love lifestyle is a process of thinking, doing, and being.

The pillars are: Taking out the toxic Mind matters Unapologetic action Collective compassion

Dismantling body shame and body terrorism is a process of deindoctrination requiring that we excavate the thoughts we have internalized about bodies and evict the voices of judgment, hierarchy, and shame.

would dare speak to us with such malice. Just as the Three Peaces offer us a framework for divesting from a lifetime of shame and judgment, the four pillars teach us to make peace with our bodies by distinguishing and diminishing the outside voice and cultivating a practice of listening more deeply to our authentic selves, our radical self-love voice, our “inside voice.”