I have a question for you:

What would happen if you learned to trust your gut instead of trying to starve it, empty it, flatten it, suck it in, or hide it?

Chances are you would experience a huge transformation.

Learning to trust your intuition is huge.

Choosing to stop hating your body is huge.

Doing both at the same time is life changing.

I often ask my one-on-one mentor students:

“What would you think about if you weren’t spending so much time thinking about what’s wrong with your body?”

The answers are both exciting and heartbreaking.

Heart breaking because much of the time we are using our displeasure with our bodies as a scape goat.

We focus on our abs or thighs (or what we are eating) so that we don’t have to think about how our relationship is suffering, how much we hate our job, how we feel out of control of our finances, or how we feel unheard, unseen, unwanted, unloved, not enough, too much…the list is endless. 

Answering this question can be hard, but its often also exciting because once you have an answer you can give yourself permission to shift your focus!

You can feel and think about what you need to feel and think about and start healing. 

Perhaps, with more freely available mental energy, you’ll uncover a passion that’s been lacking fuel while the self and body hate has been sucking up your reserves.

Do you really want to spend this precious lifetime worrying about and stressing over how flat your stomach is or whether or not your thighs touch? 

I believe that you have a far higher purpose than that, and I’m willing to bet that you have a hint of an idea of what you’d rather be doing, feeling, and thinking about.

Take some time to tune into your gut, your intuition, and really listen.

How do you feel? Instead of hating on the feelings that you body is experiencing – lean in. Get curious. 

Stop numbing out and distracting yourself.

Get brave. If you need help, ask for it.

Of course shifting your thinking around your body and food can be really tricky, because you have to interact with your body and with food everyday.

Perhaps instead of thinking about those interactions like dreaded hurdles you could think of them as beautiful opportunities to grow and heal. 

There is no shortage of advice on what to eat, when to eat, and how to eat but so much of it is incorrect, outdated, unhealthy, or serving no purpose other than selling supplements.

In my work I focus on the mindset shifts, the feelings, the movement, and the philosophical education aspects of shifting our relationship to ourselves and our bodies. 

I don’t talk about food, but it is an important piece of the puzzle and shouldn’t be glossed over or taken lightly.

If you are working to shift how you are relating to food and feel stuck in an over abundance of information from the media, your family, your social network, or well intentioned but too laser focused professionals, perhaps you could benefit from a more holistic approach.

I’d love to connect you with my friend Stephanie Burg. Please read one of her recent blogs:
Why Your Parents Approach To Weight Loss Isn’t For You. 

Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this essay I’d be so grateful if you could share it with a friend or your social network.

Much love,

Katie