When clients and are talking about body image, i often say that our relationship with food and how we view our body is a response to something. It's a response to our past experiences, it's a response to what has been modelled to us, it's a response to our society and body ideals. When we become aware of how this, we can start to unpack our beliefs, assess whether they're helpful or not and start to create new ones. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Body image is multifaceted. It's influenced by so much and a lot of these influences we have no idea about but we are left to internalise these beliefs about our body and rather than turning that anger outwards at the people who make us feel like our body isn't good enough, we internalise it and make our problem. This is what we are taught to do, but we dont have to do this anymore. I'm not saying we should all aim for self-love, i think having a solid foundation of body acceptance and neutrality is an amazing goal to have and is one i work towards everyday. But regardless of what our goal is, we will never get there by hating our body, nothing good will come from it. But we can have self-compassion for the times when we do hold that anger towards ourselves as well. Come Check out Take up space - Messy Health's body image and sexuality online and self-paced course! More info via the link in my bio⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I swear i didn't feel confident in my body until i was 25, which is such a wild thing to say! Body confidence doesn't come from being a particular size or weight, it comes from consistently rejecting the body ideals we have set as a society (This comes from becoming aware of these ideals and understanding how they are inherently racist, sexist and fatphobia) and then creating a new belief system over time that centres our needs and wellbeing. If you want to learn more about body confidence then check out Take up space, Messy Health's body image and sensuality online, self-paced course. You can learn more via the link in my bio ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
