Discover how to embrace and accept your body. Learn to own it, find acceptance, and reclaim your life.
Do you feel like your belly is sticking out? Or that your boobs are too flat? or too big? Or that your thighs are too big? At Body Image Coach we hear people are saying these things about themselves but what would happen if you stood up one day and owned it.
What would happen if you allowed your tummy to stick out and you said "good, I'm glad my tummy sticks out because it is normal to have a belly and my fat serves to protect and insulate my body". What if you said "I'm glad my boobs are too flat or too big because they are meant to be exactly how they are are." What if you said "I'm glad my thighs are too big because it shows the world that I am healthy and alive."
What would happen if you owned it! if you allowed your body and face to be exactly how it is supposed to be now?
Body Image Coach can help you to do that. Let's start now........
Write down what you are not happy with. For example:
"I can't accept my nose"
"I can't accept my teeth"
"I can't accept my face"
Write down what you are struggling to accept, before reading on.
What words do you say to yourself on a regular basis, around that body part. For example: "I hate my teeth, they are crooked and I can't accept them, I want them straight and white and smaller."
Next to your written list, write the words you use to express your dislike.
Ok, now you have a list of the body parts that you are struggling to accept, and the words that you say to yourself about those body parts.
Owning it:
Looking at your list, how do you feel about what you have written? How big is your inner battle with yourself? If you met someone else that had written all of this, how would you feel about them? What would you tell them?
If I introduced myself to you and I expressed my dislike for myself, telling you all the things that I don't like about me, what would you say to me?
Let's say the image below is me:
And I tell you I hate my face, I hate how my nose points upwards and my chin is too pointy. I tell you my ears stick out and my eyes are too close together. What would you say to me.......
Hopefully you would tell me that I look ok and that I shouldn't worry about things like this because I look ok and nobody is judging me right? Maybe you would say that those that are judging me for these things are probably insecure themselves and are saying those kinds of things to themselves also, right?
But I don't listen, your words are falling on deaf ears, and I keep on hating myself until one day it really consumes me and I feel so overwhelmed that I struggle to go out.
What would you say to me then? How could you fix this?
After careful thought, what if you came to my house, knocked on my door and I opened it, looking very sad. You came in and sat me down on the sofa in the living room and said to me:
"I have something very important to tell you that has the power to heal you".
I looked up at you with a glimmer of hope. Now you had my full attention.
"What is it" I asked, eager to erase this pain deep inside my chest.
"What if, what if you owned it."
"What?" I said confused as I sank deeper into my chair into a slump.
"Look", you said, "I know how you feel because I used to feel the same way. I even wrote a list of all the body parts I hated and all the words I used to say to myself. Then one day, I decided to stick up for those body parts and own them. I decided that if those body parts could speak they would tell me how sad they are for all the suffering I put them through. They would tell me that they cannot change how they look because they were born this way and changing them is like trying to change your foot size, it's impossible and they are not meant to look differently than they look now. So instead I faced my biggest fears; I looked in the mirror at those parts I was hating and said: Instead of feeling hate and shame for you, I will feel acceptance for you from now on. I decided to sit with the shame that I felt and accept it. I decided to let go of the idea that I could change my bone structure and body shape and instead, I owned it. Every day I said to myself: I accept how I look now, I accept and own it and this is me, the whole me, the truth of me, the me that I tried to hide, the me that I am and the me that will always be. I can either accept this and move through the pain, or I can hide away for the rest of my life".
By now, I was listening to you and sat up and looked at you in anticipation of what you was going to say next.
"Do you know what happened when I decided to own it"? You said.
"What" I said.
"I stopped hating myself. The more I accepted myself, the more the hatred and shame fizzled away until I was left with acceptance. I neither hated or loved those parts that I once hated. I felt only acceptance for my body. The shame had disappeared and hatred was nowhere in my mind's sight.
After hearing this story, I felt hopeful and decided to try it myself, after all, I had no better options. Each time I looked in the mirror at my face, I said: I own my facial shape and accept it, I own how I look and accept it. I own me and I accept me. I will now sit with the shame I have carried and watch it, rather than allowing it to consume and eat me up. The shame is not mine to keep, it belongs to all those people that judge, all those that say bitter and hurtful things about others; that is who my shame belongs to.
After several months you visited me at my home. There was a sign on the door and it was for you. It read:
'Thank you, you have given me my life back. I am out enjoying life and accepting myself fully'.
- The end.
This is also how your life can be. And then you can leave us a sign at your door.
If you would like to express how you feel about yourself, fill out our form, we are always here to listen to you and support you if you need extra support.
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