Every Monday features a tip, exercise, inspiring quote or other tidbit to help boost your body image. For many of us, Mondays are tough. We may feel anxious and stressed out, anticipating an arduous week, especially if we didn’t get much rest and relaxation during the weekend. These kinds of feelings don’t create the best environment for improving one’s body image. In fact, you might be harder on yourself and easily frustrated. You might even feel like you’re walking on egg shells – with yourself! With these posts, I hope you’ll have a healthier and happier body image day, that’ll last throughout the week.

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky@gmail.com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. It can be anything you do that’s healthy and helps boost your body image. I’d love to hear from you!

How many of you mainly experience your body on the outside, striving to improve various physical attributes but rarely feeling your body?

If this were a classroom, I feel like tons of hands would shoot up.

Now, how many of you truly experience your body from within?

Perhaps only a few of you would keep your hands raised, right?

It isn’t that focusing on your appearance is a negative thing. For instance, looking nice is a way for me – and of course many women – to feel good about myself. Plus, it’s fun. I love fashion, finding great buys and feeling pretty. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

But it’s when outward appearances take center stage that we can hurt our body image. When we’re all appearances, we can forget to feel our bodies, our flesh, skin and sensations and to listen to our true needs. And, in a sense, we can forget to provide for our bodies. That’s when our inside inevitably suffers.

So, today, I want to share with you an activity for looking inward and feeling your body from The Religion of Thinness: Satisfying the Spiritual Hungers Behind Women’s Obsession with Food and Weight by Michelle M. Lelwica, ThD. (By the way, I received a copy from the publisher.) I love the book. I found it insightful, interesting and inspiring. And I’ll be featuring an interview with Michelle in the future, so stay tuned for that.

Many of us, according to Michelle, “learn to see and experience ourselves as walking pictures and measure our beauty and goodness based on shallow facades…The more we define and judge our worth based on appearance, the more likely we are to find ourselves doing the same to our friends, family members, co-workers, and people we don’t even know!”

She says that identifying so much with our outward appearance disconnects us from feeling our bodies on the inside. She then asks, “Why do we resist and strive to eradicate the very flesh that connects us to the larger circle of life?” How powerful is that!

To move beyond external appearances, Michelle focuses on the importance of digging deeper and practicing peace with our bodies. She writes:

We need to break through our fixation with how we look, embrace ourselves “as is,” and delve into the deep and powerful experience of being in a physical form. By doing so, we end the cycle of female identification with appearance, create a mature appreciation of our bodies, and learn to enjoy what a gift our body can be.

She calls the below exercise “Becoming Mindful of Your Body from Within.” She writes that “it can help you reconnect with feelings, energy and sensations – the life – inside you.”

Here’s a rundown of the exercise:

• Find a quiet place to sit or lie down, and take several slow breaths.
• Focus on your internal physical experience. As Michelle writes, ask yourself:

How does your body feel at this moment? Can you sense it from within? Do you notice any pain, discomfort or tension? Do you feel relaxed, anxious, tired, overwhelmed? Do you feel a sense of hunger or fullness?

• Scan your body from head to toe. Begin by “bringing your attention first to the feelings inside your feet, and slowly and progressively move your consciousness up the legs, through the stomach, back to the shoulders, and finally all the way through the head.” Having a tough time focusing on each body part? Michelle suggests tightening that part for a few seconds and then rapidly releasing it.
• Consider your experiences focusing on your “inner body.” Michelle writes:

What is it like to be aware of your body from within, rather than focus your attention on the outside? Can you sense the subtle but vital energy field that pervades your entire physical form, animating every organ, cell and limb? You may experience a tingling or buzzing, or some other sensation where your awareness is concentrated.

• Feel without judgment. Try not to get involved with any thoughts that come up, whether they’re positive or negative. Just notice them and then move on. I love the image she gives for moving beyond your thoughts: “You might imagine writing them on a leaf and floating them down the river.”
• Practice this anywhere. The first few times you try this, you might get frustrated or feel uncomfortable in your body. That’s OK. This is a skill that you can practice, says Michelle. In fact, you can practice this exercise any time, any place. She concludes:

With practice, this exercise will gradually shift your attention away from your external appearance, help you discern what your body really needs and enable you to live more peacefully in your own flesh.

How often do you focus within? What are other ways you become mindful of your body’s needs or your inner body in general?

Today’s Favorite Post. “Quiet Heroes” by Sally McGraw at Already Pretty.

By the way, stay tuned tomorrow for my interview with the amazing Evelyn Tribole!

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From Psych Central's website:
PsychCentral (June 14, 2010)

The Illusionists (June 14, 2010)

    Last reviewed: 14 Jun 2010