Body Image Grieving

We're now at that time of year where we're bombarded with commercials and social media posts about changing your body, losing weight, getting in shape and "fixing" yourself. Some of the marketing you may see will be very savvy. You might even start to think, "maybe I do need to change myself." This kind of marketing preys on our insecurities and our fears. The marketing you might see might often connects that changing your body is the key to getting everything you desire. The lightness, confidence, and empowerment we're often looking to feel though does not come from changing yourself. It comes from embracing yourself just as you are right here and right now.

Letting go of another diet, another cleanse, another detox program, of the desire or the need to lose weight or change your body can bring up all sorts of emotions. I want you, for a moment, to say to yourself:

Your body does not need to change.

What comes up? What stories arise? Is there joy, sadness, grief? Is there a story that if you let this go that means something about who you are? Is there fear around what you will fill all that time with that was previously consumed with worry about your body image?

In the process of stepping into more confidence and empowerment in your body just as it is, there can be grief. We often need to say goodbye to former body formations from the past to step into appreciating our body as it is right now. You can reminisce with your body on all you have been through. You can look at past pictures of yourself and appreciate the different phases you and your body have been through and how that body shape served you at that time of your life. You can even reflect on how that body shape would no longer be supportive to who you are now and the life you're living in the present.

Our bodies are meant to change.

What I often see is that the weight some individuals have stuck in their head that they're "supposed" to be at is a weight you may have experienced in the past at a time in your life that you felt the most comfort or joy or aliveness. It wasn't really about the weight. It was how you felt at that time of your life that you're potentially desiring to feel now. You can feel light now. You can feel alive in your body now. You can feel joy and excitement and confidence in your body now. Nothing needs to change about you to have the life you desire to be living.

And sometimes when you realize the only thing holding you back from what you want is yourself, there can be sadness and grief and anger and all sorts of emotions that can arise in that space as you have been holding yourself back for a reason. To continue to focus on your body image and that something about you needs to change is protecting you from something. If you were actually good enough just as you are, what then? How would you want to spend all that time you now have no longer worrying about what, when, and how to eat and move your body?

So as you potentially explore entering into this new year in a very different way, give yourself space to grieve. Say goodbye to former body formations and images of you. They are in the past and who you are now and the body you have now is just as amazing and deserving of appreciation and respect as who it used to be.

If you're looking for more support on this journey, I'm excited to announce that on Monday doors open to my program Satiated: Satisfying Your Physical and Emotional Hungers. This is a three month program that will guide you in having a deeper and more understanding relationship with your food and body. This is the ultimate program for anti-dieters and aspiring intuitive eaters so that you will never have to rely on external diets or tools ever again. If you're interested in being the first to know when doors open, be sure to sign up for my newsletter here.