Your Body Doesn't Have To Be Your Enemy

The holidays seem to be a time where diet conversation is even more rampant then usual and along with that typically comes people openly discussing their negative feelings about their bodies.  In the past few weeks, I’ve heard people talking about how they hate their stomachs, thighs, how they feel unattractive and like they will never find a partner, and how they don’t feel like they can wear the clothes they want to wear, and a host of other negative beliefs about themselves and their bodies. All these conversations really come down to an underlying sentiment that most people who in any way struggle with food and body image seem to have: my body has betrayed me.

Take a minute to let how powerful that sort of belief actually is sink in. Doesn’t it make sense that if we feel betrayed by our body viewing it with any sort of compassion and kindness is going to be impossible? I would also venture a guess that treating our bodies in an unkind way by engaging in behaviors that aren’t nourishing to it is much easier when we harbor this anger towards our bodies as well. That really is the most important impact of this belief-it disconnects us from our bodies. It makes our bodies this negative thing that we try to actively separate from in many ways rather than a part of us that does wonderful things for us every day such as breathe, circulate our blood etc.

Shifting the focus from how our bodies have betrayed us by not losing weight to the things our bodies do for us is big step towards starting to repair this relationship. So many of us live our lives so separated from our bodies. If we are working towards eating in an intuitive way, reconnecting with our body is a big part of being successful. We need to be able to be connected to our bodies in order to hear the messages it is giving us.

Taking the focus off weight and developing a better relationship with our bodies is so important to our overall health and wellbeing and so many people are struggling so much with this throughout the year (it just seems to be especially apparent this time year). I hope as we head into the New Year, instead of thinking about weight loss resolutions, we can shift our focus towards developing a more loving and kind relationship with ourselves and our bodies.

 

Questions about improving your relationship with your body or anything else food/body related? Feel free to get in touch!