You Have More to Do with Your Life Than Change Your Body.
A quick holiday love note, as we head into diet culture's peak season:
You have more to do with your life than change your body.
The reason my coaching evolved from strictly strength training to body image + more holistic work in conjunction was because, with a load of therapy and learning, I came to understand what I (we) always knew but put on hold when diving into the fitness industry:
We often do not separate our beliefs about our physical bodies from the rest of us, in our current culture.
We try to pretend like we can/do, or like this programming doesn't run deep snaking its tentacles into every crevice of our lives, but it always catches up to us. We believe certain things about certain bodies (+ certain habits, + certain ways of showing up in our lives), and, for most of us for quite some time, we do our best to distance ourselves from the shame spiral created by a world profiting from as many people feeling as bad as possible about themselves (so we can be sold a solution). The process of shifting all these beliefs—of seeing them for what they are and how they've impacted you + those around you—is often lengthy, imperfect, uncertain.
It's also freedom and truth.
A recovery not just of your full humanity but all of ours.
You are (and we all are) so much more than a body.
A simple sentence with layers like onions, one to peel back again and again, to be met with sweetness or stinging tears.
How to begin to pull it all apart?
Let it be messy—messy because that's what humans are.
Make space for your feelings (all of them), for questions (you don't need to have the, "right," answers all right now—also, spoiler, there aren't any), for time and consistency and compassion. Build up a toolbox, a container in which you can hold yourself for the adventure.
(Strength training can provide a great avenue for this, teaching resilience and progression and expansion and, yes, strength, and there are many others.)
Skipping steps, looking for quick fixes to ease the shame, keeps us on the hamster wheel. Step off, zoom out, and break free.
Whichever holidays you celebrate, I hope you revel in the joy and magic of the season, remembering you deserve to feel that, too, amidst the inevitable overwhelm (extra-special shoutout to my fellow highly sensitives <3).
xoxo,
Steph
PS- looking for extra support on how to do exactly this, making 2020 the year you finally spend more of your precious time thinking about your life instead of your body and how it looks? I have a special offer coming for you in the next couple of weeks. Keep an eye out in this space!
