Today is going to be a superboost for self-awareness! Lately I’ve been seeing a ton of empowering articles from some awesome ladies. I love keeping these encouraging words bookmarked for days when I get too wrapped up in my head, spend too much time comparing myself to others, or am downright in a bummer mood about my body.

It’s imperative to have body-positive arguments against the negative messages we get day in and day out from the likes of advertisements, media, instagram. It can be so easy to get trapped in a self-critical mindset simply by living in our modern environment. It takes a proactive approach to create a more balanced view of ourselves, others, and our purpose on this Earth.

Check out these links, the bad-ass women who wrote them, and go forth into your weekend with a superhero attitude!

My Body Doesn’t Need  A Cure, by Laura Bogart

Ask yourself what you are being sold in the health food stores. Is it clean, healthy energy to support your body and your life? Or is it the virtue of health, a superiority complex over the people who don’t juice, have a yoga membership, or wear leggings from lululemon. Companies make tons of money off of our need to feel like we are “being good and doing good”. Question it!

People who can afford to spend top dollar on personal trainers and “clean eating” must, by contrast, be go-getters, the holders of high-paying jobs with impressive titles. Thin bodies, or “healthy bodies,” are, therefore, associated with industriousness—which makes them inherently more worthy, more respectable. Clean eating is really about the purity of the soul. And if we are what we eat, then healthiness is close to godliness.

Body Fat has Become the New Religion, by Jessi Kneeland

Jessi always has some hard-hitting things to say about our ridiculous preoccupations with our bodies. Here’s another great reality check.

Whether you’re trying to lose your fat, accept your fat, or love your fat, you’re still talking about fat, and thus fat retains a power and status that it absolutely does not deserve. Fat is just something you body makes to protect and fuel you. It’s a survival mechanism, and when healthy, it’s beautiful and awesome.

How to Not Care What Other People Think of You, by Erin Brown

I love it when Erin calls us out on our bad mindset habits. How often do we emotionally attach to the mean things people say about us? And the positive things? We do everything to avoid the hurtful remarks but then soak up the compliments and praise without question. Why do other people get to tell us who we are?

I define myself, I deal with my own stuff, and I don’t determine my worth or confidence based on others’ words.

You Don’t Have to Love Your Body, by Ijeoma Oluo

An alternative perspective on the “Body-Love” movement. While there’s nothing wrong with loving yourself, there’s also nothing wrong with not-loving yourself. Sometimes body-neutrality is an relief to the pressure to be one way or another.

As a mother of two boys, I realized that I never once had felt the urge to say to either of them, “Dude, you should love your body more.” This isn’t because boys aren’t subject to body image issues—increasingly they are. It is because our first instinct when talking to boys about their bodies, if it’s ever necessary, is to remind them that their bodies just aren’t a big deal. …And your body isn’t a big deal most of the time.