Body Empowerment Lessons Inspired by RBG
When I heard Ruth Bader Ginsburg was no longer a presence in this world, I cried. There was something about her spirit as she navigated cancer that felt indomitable. Her amazing being gave this impression that she could survive and thrive through anything. I partly felt shock. I had a belief, I now have awareness of, that she was going to live well into her 100's and guide us all into a new time, which she has done so many times before.
In honor of her life, I'm diving into 3 Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes and how they can empower you in the healing journey you may be on with your food and body.
"Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you."
Sometimes a focus on our body and food comes in as a way to navigate all that we want to speak out into the world. We may have wounds when we spoke up in the past where we were shut down, rejected, and abandoned. When I was a kid, I had no filter. I had not yet learned how to share my wisdom as an old soul living in a young body in a way others could hear and take in. I know what it is like to speak out and have others put you down because they were not yet ready to hear all the wisdom you had to offer. I became quiet for far too long because I was so tired of the rejection. That silence only led to a broken relationship with myself.
If you're someone who continues to struggle in your relationship with your food and body, there are truths that want to be spoken. There are things that your body no longer wants to hold onto any longer. The focus on what you're eating and how you look is serving as a distraction of the ways you want to lead in this world. Ruth Bader Ginsburg serves as a beautiful reminder that you may receive opposition, you may be met with dissent and for the health of yourself, the world, and to move beyond any food or body image concerns, it is time to speak up in a way that inspires, uplifts, empathizes, and offers compassion so that you may serve as a role model to move the conversations we're having away from a focus on food and body and to use all that energy toward the changes we want to see in this world. Check out my podcast or blog called How To Create A Loving Response To Yourself And Others for more tips. Speaking of dissent....RBG's next quote....
"Dissents speak to a future age. It's not simply to say, 'My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.' But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that's the dissenter's hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow."
Unconditionally loving ourselves is a huge middle finger to all of the industries that want us to believe we need to lose weight, change, look different to be loved and accepted. Our dissent from listening to these messages can be creating a new world for future generations where cultivating a loving, respectful, grounding relationship with food and body comes with so much more ease. To create that tomorrow for others, we need to start within ourselves. Any message that does not feel supportive to take in, I have unfollowed and unsubscribed from individuals that are spreading messages that do not support me in feeling like I can be myself in this world.
When patterns arise worrying about what you're eating, how you're eating, how you look, thank these worries and concerns for showing up in trying to protect you and let them know you no longer need their support. Trust me, I get how difficult these ways of thinking and being are to let go. I've been there too. These patterns often showed up at a time when we perhaps needed them. There can be so much in our lives that feels out of our control and focusing on what we eat and how we move offered a feeling of being in control in life when it was needed to feel safe and protected.
Our dissent from not accepting and appreciating ourselves exactly as we are right here and right now is also saying goodbye to something that felt like a best friend at one point in time. It is going to feel uncomfortable. And to create a world where every single body receives the respect they deserve, we need to start creating that kind of relationship that no matter what we eat and no matter how our appearance changes over time (and it will change) that we deserve respect. When we start treating ourselves with compassion and kindness, it is that much easier to offer that same gentleness to everyone around us. The ripple effect starts within us.
"I would just like people to think of me as a judge who did the best she could with whatever limited talent I had, to keep our country true to what makes it a great nation and to make things a little better than they might have been if I hadn't been there."
I want you to remember a day right now where you felt your aliveness was truly meaningful and purposeful. Describe that moment to yourself or write it down. What happened that day or in that moment? Notice how you feel in your body as you remember what occurred. I feel this daily when I work with my clients. Those sessions when some huge lightbulb moment occurred for my client, my life feels meaningful that I needed to be here to support this person in this moment have that realization that is potentially going to make such a huge shift and transformation in their life. In those moments, there is no thought around food and my body, just as it is, is a vehicle for the wisdom pouring out of me.
Back to your purpose moment, were you thinking about what to eat later? Were you worrying about what you looked like? Probably not. You were so engaged in the act of living and being your authentic self that those worries and concerns fell away. You being you made the world a little brighter in that moment. The next time you find yourself thinking about your food and body image over and over again, guide yourself to take a pause. You can reflect on something you did or the way you showed up for someone else that made a huge difference for another. If you didn't exist, just as you are, you wouldn't have been able to make the impact you did. You are so much more than what you ate or how you look. Your presence in this world is needed and there are individuals out there who need you to be you to give them permission to be themselves.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second female and the first Jewish female justice of the Supreme Court. She eventually became the longest-serving Jewish justice. She has been a huge inspiration to me as a Jewish woman wanting to make a difference in the world. May her life continue to be an inspiration to all women to speak up for any injustice we see and work to create the world we desire to live in.