How Do You Feel About Your Body?
Take a second to answer this question:
How do you feel about your body?
Did you answer it?
Make sure you answer it before you go any further!
Ok. Hi. So, did you answer the question, “How do YOU FEEL about your body,” or did you actually, in truth, answer one of these questions:
What do you most fear someone will see when they look at you?
What do you love for people to see when they look at you?
When we’re asked how we feel about our bodies, we self-objectify ourselves.
What do I mean by that?
We’ve learned to view our bodies from an outside perspective (which is a learned trait within a society that is constantly objectifying our bodies). We see our bodies as an ornament, something to be seen, rather than what it is, an instrument, something we use to experience the world.
“When we are self-objectifying, our identities are split in two: the one living her life and the one watching and judging her. We become our very own self-conscious identical twin, an onlooker to ourselves, monitoring how we look rather than how we are feeling or what we are doing. We live, and we imagine how we look as we live, adjusting and contorting ourselves accordingly. We watch from afar as our bodies become our primary means of identity and value.” - Lexie and Lindsay Kite
You’ve experienced every moment of your incredible life in your body, yet, you still judge and define how you feel about it based on how you think it looks like to others. That’s so sad. It’s so unfair.
Let me ask you though, what are the judgments you pass on to others? Do you body check women? Just as much as men? Do you instantly think less/more of someone based on their body size? Do you hold biases towards others based on how they look? Do you critique the way a man looks just as much as a woman?
Here's a hard pill to swallow: You are probably contributing to your own unhappiness. You cannot live carefree of what others’ think, if you yourself cast judgment on others. You most likely think about yourself a certain way, because you know you’d think that way of someone else. If you didn’t have judgments on appearance, there would be no negativity to cast onto others or yourself.
Remember, you don’t know what anybody is going through. You can’t judge anyone’s lifestyle, choices, worth on their appearance.
Every body, deserves respect.
Every body, deserves to be here.
Every body, deserves love.
If moving away from body obsession and learning how to let go of judgment and start seeing yourself and others for more than just a body, I highly recommend you read More Than a Body by Lexie and Lindsay Kite.
Adapted from More Than a Body.
If you’re looking for a safe space where you can learn how to let go of dieting for good, enjoy food without guilt, and turn exercise into something you love to do rather than something you “have” to do, submit a client application to get in contact with me! I work with clients virtually all over the world helping those who are frustrated with dieting and want to change their relationship with food and themselves.
Hi, I’m Azul Corajoria, an Integrative Health Coach, Personal Trainer & Yoga Instructor. I support my clients in making step-by-step changes so that they can live a healthy and balanced life. By recognizing the interdependent roles of mindset, nutrition, and movement I educate and hold my clients accountable for achieving their health goals through lifestyle and behavior adjustments with an emphasis on self-care. Together, we navigate the contradictory world of nutrition through intuitive eating, practice mindful movement, and implement small mindset and lifestyle shifts that empower them to be their best selves in the easiest way possible.
