How to Know if a Body Image Reset Could Be for You

In this week’s podcast, I help you identify thoughts and behaviours that could indicate that you could indeed use a Body Image Reset.

It comes down to if you hear tenderness in your mind that creates emotions that have you taking the actions that you want with and for your body or if it’s the opposite where you hear a mean voice in your mind that creates emotions that have you taking actions that you don’t want with and for your body.

Listen to this week’s episode HERE for examples of both inner dialogue (what you think) and outside expression (what you do with and for your body) and see if any of it sounds like you or what you do.

“Having a healthy body image fuels you to befriend your body. It allows for you meaning your mind and your heart to pay attention to your body so that the entire system that is you works in harmony.” 

What you ca do NOW

Change who you follow on social media to represent the diversity of human beings and find some that are closer to what yours looks like. Imprinting more images of normal bodies will start to show your brain that unique beauty exists.

Hello everyone and welcome to the 8th episode of season 1 of SELF guided: 

How to Know if a Body Image Reset Could Be for You.

First, I want to say that absolute statements lack nuance and depth. I want you to know that because these are observations that I made, and I offer them to you as something to reflect on for yourself. Only you know if a statement I make describes you and if it’s also true for you that it’s an indication that a body image reset could be for you. 

Second, this can be a very serious topic, and I’m approaching it, trusting that if this sparks inside of you the realization that you might need further assistance, that you reach out for it with the professionals that would be best suited to land additional support.

Here’s what to expect on today’s podcast. I’ll start by answering the question how to know if a body image reset could be for you and then I’ll share some options that are available to you so that you’re never left with you know identifying something that you want to explore, but not knowing where to start.

Let’s begin with some of the more obvious ways to know that you may be a candidate for a body image reset and that’s been noticing with you say to yourself about your body. Those are your thoughts, beliefs, and mindset. You hear yourself think mean thoughts nasty thoughts about your body might even shoot them away really fast you know and shift your focus is something else.  You’ll notice having a lot of thoughts to start with. I am to this or I am not enough this for example, I am too tall to wear heels when I want to, or if my hips are too big or my lips aren’t full enough. Your thoughts might also be very categorical type of thinking such as I’m stumpy. I am too curvy.

The next layer to this is that whatever you’re looking at that you’re thinking about, you believe that it is preventing you from something in your life or forcing you because you think it’s a problem so, for example, my thighs touching prevent me from wearing the swimsuit or outfit I would wear if they weren’t touching. The flipside of that would be having to do extra leg workout at the gym or thinking that you need to like my thighs touching make me go extra hard at the gym to get rid of them. The way you think could be more like this or different about my body then I would. One of mine for a long time was if I could get rid of my chunky thighs and stretch marks, then I had to go swim with the kids and our friends, until then, no beach for me.

If you’re not sure how you think of your body, I invite you to play word association with me. When I say body, what comes up for you? When I say face, what comes up? When I say, thighs or butt, what comes up? When I say, go dance in public with people watching, what’s the first thing that comes up for you

Is there room for more kindness in any of your discoveries here? Are you able to shift into the kindness or is that difficult? If it’s challenging, that can be an indication that you could use a body image reset. 

Let’s shut that off a little. If you felt wired up or sad, invite you to take a breath hold and release.  This will be just a little bit of help to reset your nervous system right now.

Sometimes it can be a little less obvious because we can over focus or come into the habit of over, focusing, or with Noring, our body in our body image altogether, and for that I want to share to different examples. They’re both ends of the spectrum, and then still be an indication that you could benefit from a body image reset

So two over focus means that you do something like vowed to do better, be better, and maybe like me, you start looking up the best foods to eat based on your blood type maybe, best workout routines for your body shape maybe. You find yourself following your perfect plan to the point of Bruno, basically being Uber strict with yourself. Being careful here that I’m expressly, not saying to the point of what one would consider illness. That’s beyond the scope of this podcast or help that I can provide.

On the other hand, you might have decided it’s better not to think about it at all either consciously or unconsciously. This might be you if you’ve thrown yourself into another area of your life to keep your attention and focus on an area that hurts less when you focus on it. So, for example, you’ve decided to put all of your attention on your business and you become a really really good in your business or you’ve put all of your attention and taking care of the kids you can come really really good at that. I have certainly done both extremes

My habit of attention towards improvement. I certainly over focussed on my body, and sometimes in my life where I tried all the things to improve my body so that I would maybe then like it a little. Just something interesting actually if you know the Enneagram and you know any grammar, one particular, then you know it by another name as well and that is the moral perfectionist. So for me, my narrative here was not just get a better body, but do it from what I consider to be most ““ moral, so for me, it was looking up heart healthy foods instead of how to have a flat stomach because I deemed one more moral than the other. I am being really raw and honest here so you can recognize if it applies to you. You can use the anagram actually if you know your number to see if your habit of attention is a play when it comes to how you see your body and if it’s helping you have a good body image or not

It comes down to if you hear tenderness in your mind that creates emotions that have you taking the actions that you want with and for your body or if it’s the opposite where you hear a mean voice in your mind that creates emotions that have you taking actions that you don’t want with and for your body. 

Having a healthy body image fuels you to befriend your body be in cohorts allow for you meaning your mind and your heart to pay attention to your body so that the entire system that is you works in harmony. It doesn’t mean you need to change anything about your body although it may be a side effect. In fact, I mentioned before it does tend to play off one another so it’s been my experience that the more I I feel good in my body in parentheses that is have positive body image, the more I take care of my body, the more I take care of my body., The more I feel good in my body. It’s like entering the most awesome cycle ever. What happens is that we’ve been sold that we need to change the body, make it look, feel, move a certain way, and then only then can we have permission to have a good body image, I called hogwash.

So can we get to the good part Dom why? Yes yes we can! The good part is that a good chunk of body image is mindset. You can gently explore what that is for you right now and see what’s helping your relationship with your body and what isn’t. There are also things that you can do to set yourself up for success in making those cognitive changes for yourself. And I wanna help you with both. 

So here’s what’s coming up in January 2023 until my February special which I’ll talk about very very soon so make sure you’re subscribed. In the morning media feature I’m hosting a body image reset workshop where I walk you through my three steps so you can start Making these changes to your body image ASAP. Those workshops are happening in January 10th at 10am ET & February 9th at 10am ET. These are interactive workshops, where I also do some on the spot, coaching and mentoring only if you volunteer, of course. 

The webinar is also not to be missed. I’ll be sharing my top tips that you can start applying now to set yourself up for success, you know that’s my jam by now. This is happening on January 24th at 10am ET. 

These events are free to attend and you’ll find all of the info on my website only work with me tab. See the title. The events are going to be full of value. Just remember to sign up, you have to sign up to get through that zoom door and be in the room where it happens. You also want to attend if you’ve been interested in working with me I want to see what that’s like. It’s a great place to have kind of a taste of it and I’ll be offering some goodies and bonuses to the attendees.

You can already sign up for the January 10th Body Image Reset Workshop and keep an eye on my website and or on my socials, wherever you follow me to find out when you can register for the other 2 events.

In the meantime, the number one things that’s made a difference for me was to change my environment and what I’m consuming. By changing the images that your brain sees on the daily on say instagram, you are showing it that other body types are not only normal but also beautiful. Start by visually imprinting new images in your brain and for yourself that repeat the message that the supposed beauty standard is not the one you want to measure yourself against that maybe it’s time you decided what is beautiful is right in front of you when you look in the mirror and that others have their own beauty as well but it does not affect yours.

I so hope you’ll join me for the workshops and the webinars and do share these events with family and friends.

Until next time,

Love to each and everyone.