A research study of over 5,000 women of various body weights between 25 and 89 years old concluded that body dissatisfaction in the United States is omnipresent. Omnipresent is a pretty fancy word for simply saying every woman everywhere.
91% of the women in the study wished for a slimmer and smaller figure. Take a moment to let that sink in.
When I consider my daughter, her friends and teammates, my heart breaks. This study didn’t even include her social media generation. Yet, I think we both know the results would be the same.
It’s really hard to listen and care for something you dislike. I treat my beloved car now completely differently than the minivan, filled with goldfish cracker crumbs and empty sippy cups, I drove when the kids were toddlers.
Our body holds important information that’s worth listening to and it’s important that we respect it. When it comes to your relationship with food, your body knows when you’re hungry and when you’re full. Your body holds sadness, frustration, stress, overwhelm or anger.
When it comes to your relationship with food, changing your relationship to your body is key.
By disliking our body, without realizing it, we’ve turned away from this vital source. Our body offers us wisdom and intuition. It’s our way of knowing what we feel, what lights us up and what drags us down. Our body offers us warning signals when situations may be unsafe and it’s remarkable at keeping itself in balance.
Our body is our connection to something bigger than our individual selves.
We’ve been given a body so we can navigate our way through life. Our body is so eager to guide us. We need to appreciate what it offers us.
If something doesn’t change, I don’t think our young girls stand a chance to appreciate and respect their own source of power.
We need to model for them a different way. For them and for ourselves. Don't you agree?
Interested in changing how you feel about your body? Here is ONE thing you can do right now:
Get curious around the sensations in your body. Notice lightness, heaviness and tension. Spend a few moments every day becoming aware of these sensations and notice how they change. Maybe they become more intense, move or eventually dissolve. You don’t need to try to change the sensations, just observe them.
Practice connecting to what's happening on the inside and eventually, your view of your whole body will change.