Bad body image days can happen to anyone, any time, no matter where they are in their body love journey. How we deal with them can help determine whether they are a minor irritation or a major setback.
In our final preview video for the Body Love Obstacle Course, Jeanette DePatie and I talk about an exercise that we use to deal with the days when we aren’t feeling the body love, and I wanted to share it with you here:
Step 1 – Find the Source
Figure out what body love obstacle or obstacles you are dealing with. Have you been consuming media that is designed to make you feel bad about yourself (fashion magazines, articles online with diet ads attached?) Or was it triggered by a conversation – maybe your co-workers diet and negative body talk, or a comment from your mom about you “looking older?” Or maybe it’s an illness or limitation that’s causing your relationship with your body to be strained?
Step 2 – Acceptance/Gratitude
Start to get yourself to a better place. Acknowledge and accept that you’re having a hard time with body love today and have compassion for yourself – living in a world that bombards us with messages that we aren’t enough and never will be makes it not that surprising that we would go through rough patches.
Next think of three things – any three things, no matter how small – that you can be grateful for, about your body. If all you’ve got is blinking, breathing, and heartbeat that’s fine. Just thank your body – really thank it – for whatever things you come up with. Try saying it out loud. Say it until you mean it. Then tell your body that you’re sorry that you’re having a hard time, and that you are trying as hard as you can. Then know for sure that your body has endless patience for this process, it’s not mad, you’ll get through this together and it’s all going to be alright, even if it takes some time. Stay with this step until you’re feeling a bit better.
Step 3: Over, Around, or Through
Now that you’re in a better place (even if just slightly) it’s time to think about how you can get over, around, or through the obstacles that created this situation. Make you need to take a break from body negative media. Focus on thanking your body for three things every day (or every hour if necessary!) Skip lunch with your coworkers, set some boundaries with your mom. Consider trying to re-frame an illness/injury etc. as you and your body against a problem, rather than you against your body.
It’s also absolutely reasonable to get pissed off at the ways that our culture is super screwed up around body image, self-esteem, and body size. Rage at the fact that this shouldn’t be happening. Remind yourself that it’s absolutely not your fault and it’s not fair that it has become your problem. Then do something that makes you feel good in your body whether that’s drinking a cup of your favorite tea or eating your favorite food, taking a long bath, gardening, sitting in nature, dancing around in your underwear, snuggling on the couch under a blanket, or something else.
Step 4: See the light at the end of the tunnel
Remember that the funk you are in is temporary, stay the course, and a better body day will be here before you know it.
Body Love Obstacle Course – Registration is Now Open!
I am so excited about this! The exercise above is from the final preview video for the Body Love Obstacle Course (BLOC.) The BLOC is a 10-week, proven, step-by-step program that will give you the coaching from nine amazing experts, the tools, and the community you need to create a rock solid foundation of self-esteem and body love, and teach you the strategies and skills you’ll need to leverage that to create the life you’ve always wanted no matter what obstacles the world puts in your way.
Our relationships with our bodies don’t happen in a vacuum, so just learning to see our beauty or love our bodies isn’t enough. On our journey to body love and amazing lives, the world throws obstacles in our way – obstacles that aren’t our fault, but become our problem. We’ll teach you practical, realistic, proven strategies to go above, around, and through the obstacles that the world puts in front of you, to get to the life you’ve always wanted.
Get all the details register (and get more free exercises like the one above from our free preview videos) at www.bodyloveobstaclecourse.com Early bird pricing ends at midnight on February 25th.
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