LEA WEST

The Body Warrior Pledge

Because I understand that my love and respect for my body are metaphors of my love and respect for my self and soul, I pledge:

• To stop berating my body and to begin celebrating the vessel that I have been given. I will remember the amazing things my body has given me: the ability to experience the world with a breadth of senses, the ability to perceive and express love, the ability to comfort and soothe, and the ability to fight, provide, and care for humanity.
• To understand that my body is an opportunity not a scapegoat.
• To be the primary source of my confidence. I will not rely on others to define my worth.
• To let envy dissipate and allow admiration to be a source of compassion by offering compliments to others.
• To gently but firmly stand up for myself when someone says something harmful.
• To change the inner monologue in my head to one that sees possibility not problems, potential not shortcomings, blessings not imperfections.
• To give my body the things that it needs to do its work well: plenty of water, ample movement, stretches, rest, and good nutrition, and to limit or eliminate the things that do not nurture my body.
• To see exercise as a way to improve my internal health and strength instead of a way to fight or control my body.
• To understand that my weight is not good or bad. It is just a number, and I am only good.
• To love my body and myself today. I do not have to weight ten pounds less, have longer hair, or have my degree in my hand to have worth. I have worth just as I am, and I embrace that power.
• To recognize my body’s strengths.
• To no longer put off the things that I wish to experience because I am waiting to do them in a different body.
• To understand that a body, just like a personality, is like a fingerprint: a wonderful embodiment of my uniqueness.

Signed, Lea West – 9/29/25

Oof. Some of this will be challenging. The bullets in red are the ones I know will be particularly challenging and I want to keep them on my radar.

**This is part of a series that uses “beautiful you – a daily guide to Radical Self-Acceptance” by Rosie Molinary as a model for prompts to look inward. Here’s why.**