BE BODY POSITIVE WEEK EVENTS
Welcome to Be Body Positive Week! We are excited to share our 25th anniversary celebration with you by offering a week of FREE events, giveaways, and more!
Our IG Live discussions and Zoom workshops are for educators, student leaders, treatment providers, health and wellness professionals, yoga instructors, parents, and individuals who want to learn tools for having a more peaceful relationship with their body.
Read on for details about each day’s IG Live and Zoom events. Register below to enter our drawing for special giveaways throughout the week! You’ll also receive our digital gift bag and a ticket to our celebration gala on Friday, November 5th. The gala celebration will include special guest Megan Jayne Crabbe, more giveaways, musical performances by Jenn Johns and Lia Rose, and an awards ceremony for 8 amazing Body Positive Trailblazers. Return to our Event page for more about the gala.
Monday: RECLAIM HEALTH
IG LIVE: Celebration Kickoff (10:00am PT/1:00pm ET; @thebodypositive)
Join us on Instagram (@thebodypositive), where we’ll be going live with Executive Director/Co-founder and author of Embody, Connie Sobczak (she/her), and Board member, activist, and artist, Athena Nair (she/they)! They will reintroduce The Body Positive’s mission and work, and talk about all of the fantastic events that we have lined up for the week. They’ll share how to get involved with The Body Positive and the larger worldwide body liberation movement. Tune in to ask your questions and take note about the events you’re most excited about!
ZOOM WORKSHOP: Exploring Sizeism (4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET)
join us on Zoom for our first workshop: Exploring Sizeism and Healing from Body-Based Oppression with Athena Nair and educator, yoga therapist, and member of The Body Positive team, Naomi Finkelstein (she/her). In this workshop, you’ll learn/discuss how sizeism and fatphobia affect our daily lives, and gain tools to heal from them. Athena and Naomi will guide you through a lesson from our Be Body Positive curriculum and you’ll have a chance to share your own experiences and hear from others, connecting with community as you explore the first Competency of our Be Body Positive Model: Reclaim Health.
Learn more about Monday’s presenters! Check out Connie’s website and TEDx talk, Athena’s TEDx talk, and Naomi’s website.
TUESday: PRACTICE INTUITIVE SELF-CARE
IG LIVE: MeUndies Dance Party! (10:00am PT/1:00pm ET; @thebodypositive)
Today our focus is on the second Competency of our Be Body Positive Model: Practice Intuitive Self-Care. Get ready for a fun one! Join Athena (she/they) and Naomi (she/her) for a dance party (sponsored by MeUndies—yes, we’ll be shaking our booties in our MeUndies!) and a discussion about joyful movement and intuitive living.
We’ll get some happy hormones pumping and explore the benefits of leaning on joy and pleasure as a guide to health. But joyful movement is about so much more than just “fitness” or “wellness,” so get ready for a nuanced conversation. You’ll leave inspired and thinking about self-care in a brand new way.
Learn more about today’s presenters! Check out Athena’s TEDx talk and Naomi’s website.
REGISTER TODAY FOR ACCESS TO THE FULL WEEK OF EVENTS
WEDNESday: PRACTICE INTUITIVE SELF-CARE
IG LIVE: Approaching Our Critical Voices with Self-Love (10:00am PT/1:00pm ET; @thebodypositive)
Today’s theme is our third Competency, Cultivate Self-Love. Join Co-Founder of The Body Positive, Elizabeth Scott, LCSW, CEDS-S, (she/her), and Be Body Positive Facilitator and Miss Fayette County Georgia, Jasmyn Cornell (she/her) on IG Live for “Approaching Our Critical Voice with Self-Love.”
Self-love is often suggested as an antidote to difficulties with our body, but how do we do it? In this workshop, you will learn concrete strategies to take with you to practice for the rest of your life! We’ll define what a “critical voice” is and explore why it exists, what it might be afraid of, and how it might be trying to protect you. You’ll then get a chance to practice moving towards your critical voice with love, rather than running away from it in fear.
ZOOM WORKSHOP: Making the Choice Between Fear & Love (4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET)
Join us on Zoom with The Body Positive’s Co-Founder and author of Embody, Connie Sobczak (she/her) and Be Body Positive Facilitator, educator, and community organizer, Cristal Banagan (she/her), for this interactive workshop. You’ll learn a simple technique to cultivate self-love by practicing a mindfulness meditation led by Connie where we’ll tune into our bodies and explore how we can choose love in response to fear. Get ready to discover the connection between your bodily sensations, emotional responses, thoughts, and actions. We’ll have plenty of time at the end for your questions.
Learn more about Wednesday’s presenters! Check out Connie’s website and TEDx talk, and Elizabeth’s website.
Thursday: DECLARE YOUR OWN AUTHENTIC BEAUTY
IG LIVE: What Does Beauty Mean to Me? (10:00am PT/1:00pm ET; @thebodypositive)
Our fourth Competency is Declare Your Own Authentic Beauty and today we will be doing just that. Join Connie Sobczak (she/her), Co-Founder of The Body Positive and author of Embody, and Jessica Diaz France (she/her), Board member and Be Body Positive Facilitator since she was 14 years old, for a deep and engaging discussion about beauty.
We’ll discuss what happens when we redefine beauty to include ourselves and all people, and how experiencing beauty leads to awe and connects us more deeply as humans to our lives and the world around us. You’ll also get to participate in a simple and fun activity to connect to your ancestors and to practice seeing beauty in yourself (even if it feels out of reach to you now). You’ll come away with an understanding of the experience of beauty as sacred and inclusive and how this leads to a feeling of belonging vs. shame.
Learn more about Thursday’s presenters! Check out Connie’s website and TEDx talk.
FRIday: BUILD COMMUNITY
IG LIVE PANEL: How to Build a Be Body Positive Community (10:00am PT/1:00pm ET; @thebodypositive)
The fifth Competency of our Be Body Positive Model is Build Community, so today, to end our series of IG Live Events, Athena Nair (she/they), board member of The Body Positive, activist, and artist, will be facilitating a panel discussion, “How to Build a Be Body Positive Community” with some wonderful guests.
At this event, you’ll hear from experts who have started Be Body Positive groups, changed institutions, and transformed lives! Come for inspiration on how to be a catalyst for change, and learn how to build your own Body Positive community and advocate for the removal of fatphobic/oppressive practices in society.
Learn more about Friday’s presenters! Check out Athena’s TEDx talk.
GALA ZOOM PARTY: Celebrate 25 Years with The Body Positive and Special Guest Megan Jayne Crabbe (4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET)
