You Don’t Have to Love Your Body
Happy Valentine’s Day! On this day focused on love, we are taking a bit of a different approach. Clients often talk about the difficulty in loving their body and we get it! Today, we are talking about why you don’t have to love your body and sharing other practices you can do to shift your relationship with your body.
Loving your body can be incredibly difficult. Especially if:
you’ve experienced trauma (psychological and emotional response to an overwhelming or distressing event that significantly disrupts a person's sense of safety, well-being, and daily functioning)
grew up hearing negative comments about your body
live with a chronic illness
exist in a non-diet culture approved and respected body
struggle with an eating disorder
live in diet culture
The idea of loving your body can feel really impossible and unattainable to many people and many of my clients. The gap from body hate to body love is vast. And truthfully, I don’t believe that loving your body is always possible or that it should be the ‘end goal’.
Our experience living our bodies is always changing so it doesn’t make sense to aim for a finite end goal.
The Body Image Spectrum
When clients want to work on shifting their relationship with their bodies, I’ll sometimes reference the body image spectrum. Not only does it give helpful stepping stones as someone moves out of body hatred, but there is no end point or one ‘best’ stepping stone to land on. It offers flexibility and fluidity for our individual experiences.
If not love, then what?
You get to decide, friend. There are a lot of ways you can practice taking care of and shifting your relationship with your body regularly. Your body image journey is personal and non-linear - which we understand can be scary - but we’ve shared some options to get you started below!
Move Along the Body Image Spectrum | Explore different points on the body image spectrum. Does it feel possible to respect your body instead of loving it? Could you practice body neutrality and self-compassion on your way toward body liberation? Even if you are still experiencing body dissatisfaction, could you still practice some body appreciation?
Self-Compassion | “Self-compassion is simply the process of turning compassion inwards. Instead of ignoring your pain or criticizing your failures, you’re encouraged to bring kindness and understanding to the table.” Learn 3 ways to practice self-compassion HERE.
Body Grief | “Body grief is “the distress caused by the perceived loss accompanied with body changes that are often out of our control.” Learn more about how to navigate body grief HERE.
Body Neutrality | “Body neutrality is an alternate approach to body positivity that tells us that our bodies are neither bad nor good, they just are.” Learn more about how to practice body neutrality HERE.
Feel Your Feelings | “Feelings are how we interpret our emotions and make sense of them, making it a conscious act. Feelings impact our thoughts, mood, and behaviors.” Learn how to identify and feel your feelings HERE.
Ditch Diet Culture | “Diet culture is a system of beliefs - rooted in and upheld by white supremacy, anti-Blackness, ableism, capitalism, misogyny, and the patriarchy - that worships thinness, promotes weight loss, demonizes certain ways of eating, and oppresses folks that don’t live up to the ‘standard’.” Learn more about diet culture HERE.
Learn more about Health At Every Size | “Health At Every Size® is a weight-inclusive public health approach, rooted in social justice, that aims to reduce weight stigma and size bias by focusing on weight inclusivity, life-enhancing movement, health enhancement, eating for well-being, and respectful care for people of all body shapes, sizes, and abilities.” Learn more HERE.
Be Kind to Your Body | Grab 5 tips HERE.
Moving Forward
If you need support navigating your body image healing journey, the CCN Team is available to help and support you. Reach out today!
