BODY IMAGE AND SELF ESTEEM

Stop waiting to love and accept your body only when you are at your goal weight or you are a certain size! It doesn’t work that way! If we don’t tackle the underlying self-esteem issues, then losing weight isn’t the answer. My own experience and so many conversations with different clients have shown me just how true this is. The holy grail of fitting into a certain dress size or hitting a certain number on the scale becomes a life-long pursuit for many of us. Truth is, you can still feel not good enough in a size 0. If you don’t change your narrative about your self-worth, then you will never find what you are looking for, whatever you achieve.

Healthy looks different on everyone and isn’t a certain weight or dress size. We are not all meant to look the same or should even aspire to. Very few women naturally fit into the tiny margins of cultural beauty standards. Any female who doesn’t fit in is then made to feel as if there is something wrong with them and that they need to change. This often leads to a lifelong battle with body image and an unhealthy relationship with food.

We are all different, our metabolisms, our bone structure, our genetics, our height, the places in which we store body fat. We can always improve what we have but we need to recognise where we have unrealistic and unattainable expectations for ourselves and our bodies.

Maybe you are able to achieve the ‘perfect’ body through rigorous dieting and exercise, but do you want to live a life tainted by restriction and rules,  unable to fully engage in life because you are avoiding temptation or preoccupied with your size. Is that really what makes you happy? I know that for most of us it doesn’t matter how low the number on the scale gets - it can never give you the fulfilment that you are ultimately searching for.

Many women admit that they were at their most miserable at their lowest weight. It’s worth considering that if you are maintaining the body you want through restriction, then that is probably not where your body is naturally meant to be.

I help women heal their relationship with themselves and find the balance between health and true wellness. A smaller body doesn’t always equal health and wellness, whatever you have been brainwashed to believe. Wellness is multidimensional; the integration and balance of all areas body and mind and has little to do with physical appearance or size.

So many women believe that they must berate themselves to success, or bully themselves into achieving their goals. I often find this with woman who are unhappy with their bodies and want to lose weight. They are worried that if they learn to love and accept their body the way it is right now then they will simply stop caring and lose all sight of their goals. I would argue that the opposite naturally occurs. Once you learn to treat yourself with respect and compassion, your natural desire to take care of yourself sets in and you begin to feel that you are worthy and deserving of your goals.

If you have any goal but are constantly criticising yourself, then you are undermining your own chance of success and will often adopt self-sabotage behaviours. Why would your unconscious mind help you achieve something that you keep consciously reiterating you are undeserving of? Think about how different this would be if you were to support and encourage yourself. This is where I can help you shift your thought patterns and develop a healthier and more compassionate relationship with yourself.