Our bodies - they live for us.

And they allow us to live.

They give us the ability to sift through this life experience with the breath of both joy and fear, the expression of both laughter and pain.

In them, we celebrate.

In them, we ache.

And yet in them, we often do everything we can:

To escape them.

We meet ourselves in the mirror, avoid our eyes, and dart to the pieces of our beings that we hope to be different.

We bombard ourselves with never-enoughness and create a shell of distance between us and these vessels that live to support us.

We try to love our inner child, yet we perpetuate the same talk-tracks that reject their desire to live freely in their skin without the weight of judgement.

Our bodies — they want to be our friends. They always have.

And yet, in them - we wage a silent war.

For many of us, this is habit.

I don't know a single female who hasn't dealt with some bout of shame, distortion, or insecurity from the pain of a toxic body image.

I am one of them. I have dealt with the ups and downs and everlong fluctuations of body image distress, disordered and restrictive habits, coming into a healed and accepting place time and time again only to find myself fall into old spirals of shame and self-rejection.

I have had this podcast for two years and have never spoken about this topic — because though I have dealt so intimately with this, I didn't know how to speak about it.

I didn't know what to say.

I didn't feel — qualified.

How could I? When I was still figuring it out?

And then, this week - I had a moment of reckoning with myself in a dressing room.

There was a light cast onto the dark shadow of a tired talk-track I'd heard too many times — and I realized that this cycle does not stop by living in silence.

That too many of us carry around this silent shame and guilt with this subject matter.

And it was time to break that cycle.

This episode is a soft but honest exploration of our relationship with our bodies, self-rejection, and the perfectionistic expectations we may carry in an age where image feels like currency.

During this episode, I talk about:

how we perpetuate toxic cycles of conditional love with ourselves and how to stop this cycle of perfectionism
ways the inner critic shows up and steps to keep the inner critic in check
strategies to become a friend to yourself and earn your own trust back
how to approach change from a place of love rather than FOR love
how the body is an energetic extension of us, reflecting our inner dialogue
the projection of control and "the need to fix:" my story and reflections with this topic throughout my life

TW: Body Image, Disordered Eating.

Disclaimer: I am not a therapist, doctor, nor an expert on this topic — I am just sharing my own experience and the reflections of what I've learned. If you are in need of assistance or help, please seek an expert's guidance.

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If you liked this episode, you'll like this one: 73 - Intentional Practices for an Aligned Life: How I Remain Organized, Consistent, & Connected

CHAPTERS:

0:00-6:00: Being a Friend To Ourselves while Living in an age of "Perfect"

6:00-14:00: My Moment of Reckoning & Background

14:00-16:00: Happiness is not on the Other End of your Standard of Perfection

16:00-23:00: Criticism as a form of Control & Self-Protection

23:00-28:00: Perfectionism to Procrastination Pipeline

28:00-32:00: Just as You Are: Building Practices

32:00-35:00: Changing from a place of Love > changing FOR love

35:00-39:00: Earning your own Trust Back, the Body as an Energetic Extension of Us

39:00-43:00: You're Going to have Bad Days - Leaning into Love in those Moments

43:00-49:00 ANNOUNCEMENT & Special Opportunity!!!!

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