You Can Never Truly Feel at Home in a Body That You View as Temporary

It is hard to respect something we are told we can not trust and often treat with nothing short of disdain. The truth is, we are living breathing animals with needs, needs that change and evolve. Many of us know what it feels like to reach for an idealized body type, only to be left constantly feeling like a failure, not good enough. It isn't our fault we "failed" but it sure can feel like it when our own expectations of what our bodies should be able to do, doesn't align with our efforts.

The truth of the matter is, many of the practices we might use to manipulate our physical bodies sit on the spectrum of disordered and it's no wonder. The Diet/Wellness Industry feeds us fear and false hope so that we keep coming back. This doesn't lend a very helping hand towards treating our bodies with respect and at the very least neutrality. It actually creates a very traumatic skewed relationship where we are constantly looking at our bodies as temporary. The truth of the matter is, we only have one body, and until we can learn to treat it right now with respect, the size of your pants isn't going to matter.

I understand the process of body liberation is going to look different for everyone. We are all inundated with a myriad of stigmas as well as fatphobia. Some of us have to deal with that stress on a multi-teared level, but at the end of the day, we all still have to deal with it.

The best way we can start the process of coming home to ourselves? Start listening. Start paying attention to what our bodies are trying to tell us with compassion. Body attunement is a direct route to body trust, but it isn't a straight and narrow path if you have been taught to feel shame.

You deserve to show up as you are, right now. You deserve to learn what it looks like to change perspective and see what bringing compassion into your internal dialogue might look like. Allow yourself to start there.

-Kaitlin Bolt-Lovett