Self Acceptance and Your Body

If we were to briefly imagine here a world where we just focused on our bodies functioning well, rather than their aesthetic form, what would it look like? Well, we would all feel a hell of a lot better about ourselves, we’re sure. We would accept the body shape that we have been given and not try to become something we are not. This would lead to wonderful benefits, such as developing real relationships with our bodies. Our bodies talk to us through sensation. They give us such a lot of information through pain, fatigue, muscle growth, muscle wastage, our sense of energy and the list could go on. It’s important to begin to listen and to strive to maintain that conversation throughout our lives. We do, after all, only get one body!

We invite our clients to go on a journey with their bodies. The first step we suggest is an internal one. Here is a model we offer to help with our clients thinking:

You could use our model here to look at yourself and your exercise history, from an internal process perspective. Get some ideas down about what preconceptions you have about your body and exercise. Note what kind of relationship you have with your body. Then look at how you would like to develop. Remember, self-acceptance is about accepting all your potential, as well as your limitations! Our relationship with our bodies lies somewhere in between these two concepts.

Let us know if this offers any benefits for you, or if you have any strategies to help accepting where you are at and how to tap into your potential.  We would love to hear from you!