Love That Body

I’d like to shed a little light on a new perspective about how to think about our bodies. We often grow up scrutinizing every little aspect of our bodies and finding fault wherever we feel unfavorably. Additionally, we receive all sorts of input

about this from external sources. Many of my clients, face this issue in one form or another.

I distinctly recall having one especially unpleasant experience with a boy that I didn’t particularly adore in high school. He said “you have to admit you’re a little chubby?” I can’t recall the context of the conversation, but I do recall not knowing what to do in front of the group of friends we were in. Despite being a size 0 at the time, I struggled with eating disorders starting at the age of 12.

I am glad to share, that I no longer struggle with body image issues and have found a lifestyle that supports maintaining a fitness level that feels great to me. But it took a lot of help and some drastic reframing to undo the damage from a lifetime of distorted messaging. Here’s one possible way to start shifting the negative feelings towards your body:

1. Start seeing your body as its own unique form of walking art. We all know that art is interpretive. It is understood that one person may love a piece of art while another sees it as unappealing. It would be silly to judge someone for not liking the same art that you like, so start applying that towards your body.
   
2. When you are judging yourself, try to see yourself as the art. Ask yourself, “is it possible that someone would see this differently?” It has been my experience, that people tend to want what is different than what they have. If a man is skinny, he sees himself as scrawny and wants to be bigger. If a woman is petite, she sees herself as short and wishes to be taller. What if you look at yourself through your eyes and saw yourself as an art piece. Try and learn how to appreciate the uniqueness of your body.
   
3. When we feel like we are being judged, ask yourself, “I wonder what is happening for that person, that they are seeing my body like that?” I learned how to use art as a therapeutic tool in one of my graduate courses. We had to look at a particular piece of art for one minute each day and write about what we saw. I learned that our current state highly impacts the way we see the piece of art.

From this perspective we can then see that if someone looked at the same body, each person would see it differently. One person that has just been cheated on, may see their partners mistress in a body and look disgusted at them. Another person that is ill, my look at the same body and think how lucky they are to be able to maintain a healthy weight and look away. Yet another may see an attractive mate and give a compliment. It is easy in this example to see that each person saw their own experience in the other person’s body. As we transform into the loving, compassionate beings that we are, we naturally see ourselves more lovingly because of where we are looking from.