| 'accept your body and develop a healthy body image'

an everyday moment:

As a society, we have normalised wanting your body look different - if you were completely satisfied with your body and wished nothing to look different, you would be considered abnormal.
How many of us carry the weight of our physical insecurities everyday and continue to believe that it is okay? I'm not sure about you but I've come across few videos that teach women how to relate to their body in a healthy way and exactly how 'mirror talk' can be done.

a reflection:

for example →

If I look in the mirror and dislike what I see, it reinforces the idea that I am somehow already inadequate in the first moments of my morning. See, it doesn’t even matter if my perspective is 'right' - the root cause of suffering lies in how I have attached my self-worth to my body. And it might feel inconsequential but let me tell you that if you already believe there is something 'wrong' and 'bad' about yourself in the first few minutes of your morning; that can dictate the rest of your day and your future behaviour. This is because we have a confirmation bias and a self-fulfilling prophecy. With the confirmation bias we will subconsciously act in ways or perceive other people's body language in a way that confirms those first self-degrading thoughts about ourself. Can you see how that would fuel further insecurity? Logically, someone who is 'bad' and 'wrong' does not have good things occur, is not treated the best and does not treat others the best - and you start unconsciously conforming to that logic because it's the norm. 

Additionally, in the moments above, I viewed my body as an indicator of how confident and worthy I should feel. And why is that an issue? Because my perception of my body can change based on mood and my body image also fluctuates. In moments where I am bloated, my self-esteem face plants and in moments where I am not bloated, my self-esteem skyrockets. Confidence and self-worth are foundations of our character that need to come from a stable source, not a constantly changing one. Do you see how dangerous it is to source all our confidence and worth from our body appearance? It forces so much pressure to maintain a ‘good’ body image all the time even at the sacrifice of our mental and physical helath. And this ‘good’ body image is dictated by societal messaging of what the ideal body type of a woman is which is once again CONSTANTLY CHANGING. This can lead to excessive restriction and control over food and exercise OR lead to extreme disattachment from the body where dissatisfaction is numbed by bingeing or ignoring health entirely.

The societal messaging around body image for females doesn’t help us either. The women we see on media who receive the most love, acceptance and belonging all have certain body types. Just pick a Disney princess and see what I mean c’mon. Thankfully, we are seeing a lot of progress but now ideal body types are slathered as 'healthy' - so are we to think we are unhealthy if we don't resemble them? Growing up with films, TV shows and certain-looking females going viral on social media reinforces the idea in our naive girl-minds that our success is directly correlated with our body and how we appear to others. Our success and ability to pursue our dreams is NOT dependent on our body. Our health is definitely dependent on our mobility and nutrition. And health is a crucial factor in having the strength to achieve goals that require courage and bravery. So view body image as an outcome of your exercise and nutrition routine, like all results, it takes time, and the results fluctuate. And the word 'image' in body image alone is misleading, your body is not a picture - it is a living, breathing organism.

In the meantime, learn to enjoy the privilege you have to exercise and nourish yourself - it’s about mobility, mental wellness, cardiovascular activity, and relieving tension from your body. The appreciation of the aesthetics of what your body looks like afterwards is just an added bonus, but the prize lies in that feeling of inner strength.

magic in the mundane:

So what do I do in that moment? That moment where I look in the mirror and dislike what I see. Firstly, no, it’s not about lying to yourself and going ‘yay I have my dream body’, it’s about rewiring your thought patterns and disrupting the dependency of your worth on the appearance of body parts.

I think ‘pause’, ‘rewind’ what I just thought ), remind myself that when I consistently tell myself something I start to believe it, show gratitude for that body part (these are the arms that hug my family and friends, these are the arms I use to pirouette, these are the arms I use to cook), accept that I feel dissatisfied in the moment and allow myself to feel differently. What would it be like right now if I was okay with it, if I just took a microstep from self-hatred to acknowledging the dislike and letting myself be, then you can take microstep by microstep until hatred is no longer the norm.

Give myself permission to show up with confidence and belief in myself regardless of my body image on that day - remind myself that it is even more self-affirming to continue to show up in spite of insecurities. Leave the mirror feeling uplifted rather than defeated.

fromtheheart mantras:

• Your body image does not always indicate your health - it can be a very vague indicator in the very least but since your body image constantly fluctuates, the indicator of your health needs to be something that can be relied upon.
  • Maybe it’s the feeling of taking a breath of fresh air on a walk, or being able to do more push-ups than you could last time, or tuning in with your body and deciding to only do a stretch that day.

 

• Our perception of our body is very limited - no picture, amount of scrutinising yourself will give you a fully accurate image of your body - it is always tainted with what you already believe about your body and what you believe about yourself.
  • So learn to develop a trust with yourself, be honest about how your body looks (or honest about how you might be distorting how your body looks) and be honest about how your beliefs about your body or your insecurities may be infiltrating how you see your body.

 

• Accepting your body does not mean ‘being okay’ with it in a resigned sense of way. It means allowing yourself to have a stable and strong sense of worth regardless of how your body looks AND being committed to treating your body well BECAUSE you feel good about yourself.

It's an ongoing process, so remember to be patient with yourself!

from,

the heart <3