Lessons From My Body

Blog

Oct 17

Since I hit my 20's (which was a while ago now) I have been on a quest to figure out the why's and how's to my various issues around my body image and eating habits.

At that time I was binge eating. I would secretly squirrel away vast amounts of cake and sweets, eat them rapidly then tip-toe to the bathroom, stick my fingers down my throat and purge them all up.

The 'thought' that I could never rid myself was that I was never skinny enough. And this is the thought that drove all of my behaviors around food and exercise.

Sometime in my late 20's I read a book by Hirschmann and Munter, entitled When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies. At the time their approach was kinda radical and they suggested a couple of techniques that have stayed with me.

I'll share one with you today.......

The first technique (which I still do today) is to stop the berating of your body. They invite the reader to stop putting their body down, whether it was when they looked at her in the mirror, when they dressed or at any other time. They suggested to pattern interrupt ie say STOP when those put downs came rushing in and to continue to practice this intervention whenever the put downs popped up.

20 years on since I first read this book I can safely say that this technique is firmly embedded in my psyche. I do not put my body down - to myself or when I am with others. And I challenge my friends when they put their body down to do the same.

It is a complete waste of energy to continuously put yourself down and your energy is precious and can be used in way more useful ways.

Now I am not saying you have to start loving on your body hard - well not unless you want to. All I am suggested and sharing is that if you are in the habit of putting your body down I invite you to start pattern interrupting by saying STOP.

In my experience loving your body is not as easy as just loving your body. It is an on-going process that takes many, many, many moving parts and techniques and this is one powerful technique.

It is all to easy to fall back into old behaviors. The old takes less energy and effort. To learn new behaviors takes an eager willingness and discipline.

But the rewards outweigh the effort, they really do.

It is our responsibility to feel good from the inside out. When we rely on others to make us feel good, there is always the fear they can withdraw that at anytime.

Learning to move into your body without the hate take times, energy and a big bucket full of courage.

And, you know what?

If you want to do it, you can.