Ascent Healing

As a therapist, issues with body image come up often. Typically these have to do with clients who are unhappy with their current weight and they want to lose it. They think they won’t be happy until they reach their ideal weight, whatever that may be. The problem with this attitude or view of themselves is we can always lose more weight whether it is healthy or not. If we aren’t happy or accepting of our body now, its unlikely that we will be happy with our body in the future no matter how much weight we lose.

So how do we change from a attitude of unacceptance to acceptance? This is not a simple fix or a question that has a quick answer. One thing I have found to help is to have an attitude of gratitude for the many things our bodies can do! We often don’t feel grateful for our hands, for example, until we break our wrist or for whatever reason, we can’t use that hand while it heals. The same goes for our other limbs. We aren’t grateful for the gift of being able to walk until we are limping. Can we have gratitude for our ability to see? To hear? To talk? To think? Can you make a list of all the wonderful things that your body does for you in a day? If this is hard for you, try this experiment. Put one hand in a sling for just one day even though you may not be injured and try to go about your day without the use of that limb. This may give you insight into how often you use it.

Another exercise to increase your gratitude is to specifically look on you tube for stories about people sharing their experiences of having some type of disability such as being born without a limb, or being blind, etc. There are many motivational speakers online who share their strength in overcoming their disability and still having a positive attitude.

I found a wonderful children’s book the other day on Amazon called “Bodies are cool,” by Tyler Feder. I recommend that any person, child and adult alike, read this book. Read it often. Let it sink in that no matter what body type, skin color, disability, or anything else you have, your body is wonderful!!! Another good children’s book on body image is “Her body can” by Katie Crenshaw and Ady Meschke.

We typically learn to accept or love our bodies from our caregivers and society’s views on body type. Research has shown that caregivers who express dissatisfaction with their body will often have children who express unacceptance towards the exact same body feature as their caregiver. This is because it is modeled. This is not for you to feel guilty about what you have been doing up until now, that time is past. Try to start working on modeling healthy body acceptance attitudes around your children and that will help them too.