Body Acceptance in all its Cliche Glory
You may be over this topic.
You might be tired of hearing others talk about their journey to loving and accepting their body.
On the contrary you may still be searching for some answers, screaming into the void saying “How the hell do I find a little more peace with myself!!” Whether you are over it or still searching for the key to complete and total bliss and serenity with thy self, I feel you.
What I would like to say to that is I am not one of those people who have figured out how to love and accept myself and my body completely….but over the past two years I have set out to learn how to trust myself a lot more, feel slightly more comfortable in my body and be little happier.
Now with that being said, with each step I have taken, I found myself wondering often…How I am supposed to love and accept the body I am in when everything around me is telling me that what I am, who I am, the way I look, just isn’t good enough. How am I supposed to just be when we live in a world that applauds weight loss, that claps for the thin and “in shape” people…where pretty is a privilege, and diets are the norm? How am I supposed to eat ice cream in peace when Instagram influencers are telling me that no dairy is better for my skin? Or when this person and that person are telling us what the best workout routine is to lose weight?
The truth is diet culture has made its way to what feels like all areas of our lives…it’s on social media…it’s in magazines, TV shows, movies and commercials. Companies profit off of people feeling insecure and feeling the need to change themselves in some way or “improve” themselves in others. And diet culture is even sprinkled throughout conversations with the people we interact with and the people we love.
At one point I listened to all those other people and the information they were telling me. My mind was taking in everything I read, heard and saw as my truth. I began relying on people outside myself for answers and validation.
Fast forward to present day…my wish is to be liked and loved for who I am, not whether I have a six-pack. That’s so much easier to write then actually do, okay…
BUT were trying here people. And so while healing my relationship with my body, food, exercise and life has felt like swimming up a stream…against the current…a strong current.
I have implemented these practices to make that swim against the current feel a little less intense…
1. Boundaries are my friend
I pick and choose what information comes into my circle, and I choose not to be on certain social media platforms because that isn’t something I want to engage with at the moment.
2. Radical Acceptance
I have become more aware when I am causing more suffering for myself by resisting reality. I have become more aware of the judge inside my mind and have become better at reminding it that what it is saying isn’t true. And I keep my values and the goals I have for myself and this life at the forefront of my days. When I am resisting my body and not accepting it, instead of running and abandoning myself by trying to change or fix my body… I remind myself that this feeling is going to pass…that’s the beauty of it all, nothing lasts forever even the most uncomfortable feelings.
3. Gratitude, yea I said it, it works.
I also like to practice gratitude for the places on my body my mind can be the most critical of. Such as having gratitude for my belly for holding all the food I get to eat and protecting my organs and allowing me to stand up straight and live my life!
4. Breatheeee
The breath (in my opinion) is the most accessible and powerful tool you can use on a daily bases. I like to sit in the morning on my yoga mat, close my eyes and begin to notice my breath. I know when I am felling anxious my breath begins to be shallow, and moves all the way up toward my chest. And now throughout my day instead of forcing my belly to stay in and be flat, I like taking nice deep belly breaths, they feel good and grounding. (The belly isn’t supposed to be rock hard 24/7, let that belly be!). I also like a good old inhale for 4 seconds and an exhale for 8 seconds. Extending the exhales signal to our nervous system to chilllll out.
And last but not least….
5. Remembering that I am Enough just as I am
I don’t have a solution to diet culture. I don’t know how to take down the patriarchy or destroy capitalism. I’m not sure where a long the way the world began to define for us what beautiful is. I don’t think there is a finish line to body acceptance. I think it’s ever evolving. I think we are ever evolving. I also think we need to normalize that we were all born to look different. I think that we need to normalize bodies changing as we age. And normalize bodies changing depending on what’s going on in our life, or what season we are in. I think we need to start to believe that we have always been enough. And that our bodies do not need fixing. I also think we need to remember the number on the scale does not even begin to encompass how incredible we are…And that a pant size does not have the right or power to tell our story, or hold our truth.
