RESPECT your body

For as long as I can remember I’ve been in a battle with my body. Flicking through a ‘Dolly’ magazine (circa 2005) I would see on the cover the likes of Mischa Barton, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan looking very ‘heroin chic’. As a young woman, society told me that ‘thin’ was the ideal, and only accepted physical appearance.

Diet culture and our societies obsession with thinness fed this ‘Mean Girl’ in my mind. This ‘Mean Girl’ would say nasty things about my appearance like “I’m too big, too fat, too ugly, I have chicken wings…“. You get the idea. Maybe there is a ‘Mean Girl’ in your mind too? This ‘Mean Girl’ stuck by me throughout puberty, my teens, university years and my 20’s. I believed what she told me, and used obsessive exercise and an unhealthy, restrictive diet in an attempt to reach this unrealistic beauty standard.

Years of body checking, body dysmorphia and self-loathing is starting to peel away in my healing process, as I chose to focus on accepting my body, treating it with respect, kindness and gratitude.

Let go of the ‘Mean Girl’. Notice those thoughts when they pop up, name them “there’s the Mean Girl mind again” and let go. You are not your thoughts.

Treat yourself with Kindness. Chose to treat yourself like you would a best friend, in the way you speak to yourself, and take care of your needs. Replace the ‘Mean Girl’ with the kind words you would say to a best friend.

Swap self-criticism for Respect. Take care of your body and mind by providing it with your basic needs of nourishment, self-care and rest. Your worthiness comes from your values, strengths and character-your weight is not your worth.

Adopting a mindset of Gratitude for our body creates a huge mindset shift. Working as a nurse exposed me to people having diverse challenges with their physical body and health. This was an eye opener for me. I was able to acknowledge my body and be grateful for my health and ability.

It is essential to recognise and Accept your genetic blueprint and ‘set point weight’. It took me a long time to accept that with my genetics, I would never have Steph-Claire Smiths abs. This released so much pressure. Curate a social feed that exposes a diversity of body shapes and sizes. I found a balance in my set-point weight, a “weight range that your body feels comfortable and resistant to change”. With the knowing that being at my lowest weight wasn’t healthy, and required too many resources to make this sustainable.

Bad body image days will still happen, and that’s ok, this feeling will pass. On these days, focus on gratitude, self-compassion and chose actions that respect your body.

Be kind to yourself.

M x