It's A Feeling
Feeling Good > Looking Good; Feeling Good > Being “Good”
Feeling good in my body, to me, is more than just generally feeling “good” in my body. Feeling good about my body, to me, is more than just liking the way my body looks. Feeling good in my body, to me, is more than showing up as a perfect human 24/7.
It’s about feeling rooted in my power.
It’s about feeling comfortable in my clothing.
It’s about feeling proud of how I use my voice.
It’s about feeling confident in my decisions.
It’s about not allowing my brain to highjack my heart.
it’s about feeling grounded in how I show up in the spaces I frequent.
It’s about feeling happy in my relationships.
It’s about feeling less anxious in my daily life.
It’s about moving in ways that feel right to my system that day.
It’s about nourishing my body with foods that are appealing to me and sit well in my tummy.
It’s about feeling secure when I stand up for myself or others.
It’s about enjoying my day-to-day life.
It’s about feeling present at ease.
It’s about feeling joyous more than I feel stressed.
Feeling good in my body has to do with so much more than how my body looks. And somehow, in turn, focusing on feeling good in my body has led me to like how I look more - or maybe I’m moving towards radical acceptance that my body is the only body I will ever have, and there’s no sense in not liking her or the way she looks. Either way, adopting this mentality has changed my life. It’s changed the way I show up in the world.
I Prioritize My Self-Care
Yoga, balanced eating, rest, relationships/social time, alone time, and my self-care routine are all things I prioritize in my life. If I chose to let these things go to the wayside and not give them as much time and space in my life as I do, then I know I would not feel good in my body. I truly believe a big part of the reason why I feel so rooted in myself these days is because I’ve learned to prioritize myself. Living well is important to me. Moving my body is important to me. Nourishing my body is important to me. Spending time with my loved ones is just as important to me as spending time alone is. When we prioritize our own vision of well-being, we return to ourselves, and the culmination of prioritizing these things has allowed me to better connect with how I feel in my body on any given day.
I Actually Acknowledge My Negative Body Thoughts
Instead of pretending they don’t exist, I allow them to come up when they do, give them regard, maybe ask them why they are showing up. I, then, redirect attention back to my how I somatically feel in my body and refocus back to the present moment. When we redirect the attention away from our overthinking brain, we come back into our bodies and are able to recognize how we feel and connect back to our vessels instead of allowing our brains to run the show.
If we do not acknowledge the thoughts, they will continue to come back to haunt us until we do. After all, these thoughts arise for a very real purpose - we have been conditioned in our world, by the media, by society and its BS standards, and these thoughts come up for a reason. Having the awareness to understand when the thoughts are starting to pop up, being able to pause a second to acknowledge the thoughts and maybe asking why they’ve come up for you and what they’re trying to tell you/protect you from, are the first steps in healing your relationship to your own thoughts of your body. Acknowledging these thoughts has ultimately led me to feeling better in my body because I’m able to face them, process them, and leave them behind because they usually do not serve me.
I Give Myself Grace and Practice Self-Compassion
I’m a recovering people pleaser, so you can imagine the hoops I used to force myself to jump through in order to *hopefully* be liked by others. For many years, I lived in a state of constant anxiety, existing with the purpose of ensuring people approved of me. I replayed conversations over and over again in my head, beating myself up for whatever I did or didn’t say, did or didn’t do. This kept me stuck, expending energy of things out of my control, keeping me from existing fully and comfortably in my body. Living this way kept me from presence.
I now have the understanding that A) humans are not meant to be perfect, and B) and nobody cares about me as much as I care about me. Having the self-compassion to show up messy and present and true to myself has required me to leave the crippling anxiety and people-pleasing in the past. Because tbh, that wasn’t serving anybody.
Of course feeling good in my body more times than not is the goal. But existing in an ever-changing body is an ever-changing journey, and it’ll never be a, “I feel good 24/7” type of thing because that’s not just not how it works.
My question is, how can we work towards making feeling good in our bodies our norm, our homeostasis. How can we cultivate more of this goodness for ourselves and others?
xx Megan
While I’m not a licensed therapist, registered dietician, or medical health professional and cannot speak to body image topics from a clinical, trauma-informed place, I am an expert of lived experience. I’m an academic of my own body, and I’m passionate about facilitating conversations with other humans about their relationships with their bodies. I believe it’s important to continue conversations about healthy body image in creative spaces as a means to heal individuals as well as the collective whole. But just know the information presented in this medium is not professional mental health advice or medical advice, and any questions or concerns you have should always be directed to your health providers.
Wow - you articulated the process of letting go so well. Beautiful piece, Megan!