restore your relationship with your body
Your body image is how you perceive, think and feel about your body, and it may not necessarily correlate to your actual appearance.
Negative body image is an internal process which is usually influenced by external factors; stemming from perception, beliefs, feelings and/or learned behaviours.
As someone who’s struggled with disordered body image for as long as I can remember, I know that healing your relationship with your body takes time; its individualised, and it’s certainly not as easy as deciding to just “love your body” overnight.
You didn’t adopt these perceptions and beliefs overnight, so when you’re trying to let go of negative patterns its a lot more realistic to acknowledge and replace thoughts rather than try to block them out entirely.
Something I’ve personally found beneficial, and now guide my clients through, is getting curious with automatic thought patterns.
Below are some journal prompts however if journalling isn’t your thing, simply asking yourself these types of questions can encourage self-awareness.
Examples:
When did I first start feeling bad about my body?
Did something trigger this emotion or feeling?
How has my body image impacted my daily life?
What could I do more of in life if I wasn’t trying to change my body?
What would it look like to have a perfectly normal relationship to my body?
How would it feel to accept my body as it is right now?
What are 3 non-physical positive qualities I have?
What matters most to me in life?
Exploring and replacing thoughts little by little helps you retrain your brain and disassociate with patterns that no longer serve you. The more you do it, the better life gets too - you start to see, experience and witness that there is so much more to life than your physical appearance. See, when you fixate on something it feels like the most important thing in the world. Fixating on the thoughts in your head that tell you ‘‘you’re not good enough, slim enough, fit enough” is no different. Giving so much energy and power to these obstructive thoughts takes you away from being present, and enjoying life. It holds you back from appreciating the positive aspects of yourself that are unrelated to body image. The things in life that matter are not surface level. They consist of experiences, relationships, passions, purposes. Same goes with the positive aspects of yourself, which are much deeper and non-physical like your sense of humour, intelligence, kindness and strength.
By refocussing your time and energy on things that contribute to a fulfilling life + make you an amazing person; you can start to force away the negativity and preoccupation with body image.
…thats a nutshell version anyway.
Body image is complex, but you do not deserve to struggle and if you need support or guidance in your journey - reach out and we can work through things together.
xx