How Mindfulness Can Reframe Body Image

Please note that this post discusses eating disorders. Weight — the loss of it, the gain of it, the way our bodies fill out our clothes or take up space in public — is a concept that can completely occupy our thoughts. For some of us, obsessing about weight is a daily reality. The perfect size seems ever out of reach, and I don’t think there’s anyone out there who truly feels their body is the perfect size and shape. I struggled with an eating disorder when I was in my teens. I never felt thin enough—even when my BMI was in the flashing-red-lights-get-this-girl-a-sandwich-before-she-passes-out range. As long as I had soft flesh anywhere on my body, I felt somehow vulnerable and out of control. The harder and smaller my body was, the safer I felt on some level. I found a way to sublimate hunger pangs into a kind of willpower practice that could make me feel a little high. I felt strong and in control when I could ignore my body’s most basic needs, but I was neither. It’s hard to be strong when your muscles are disappearing into your body to try to keep your brain functioning, and it’s hard to be in control when your brain is in alarm mode because you are starving. In order to be strong and healthy, to focus on my work, to love my partner and family and friends, I need fuel. I need food in order to think. It’s natural that during some periods of your life, you put on weight and, at other times, lose it. Hormonal changes, pregnancy/lactation, medicatio...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Eating Disorders Mindfulness Publishers Spirituality & Health Body Image Weight Source Type: blogs