Your Body Is Not A Problem to be Solved
We are surrounded by triggers that tell us our body is wrong – that we do not match up to some “ideal” shape, height, culture, race, and orientation. The constant barrage of misinformation leads us to feel uncomfortable in the body into which we are born. And that if we change our body, we will achieve greatness, happiness and peace.
But that is a lie.
Even as the diet and wellness culture sell us on how to reshape our body, numerous studies have shown that intentional body change is not at all likely, not long-term. In three to five years, our body will take back the reigns. Our natural biological systems are alert to restrictions of food intake or overspending calories on exercise. It will pull us back from the brink of starvation with a subconscious force we can’t control.
Each time we fail another body change attempt, we blame ourselves, not the advice we have been following. And, as a bonus, the stress packs on a few more pounds.
The stress of living in a fatphobic culture permeates every waking moment. It affects how we:
buy, prepare, and eat our food and why and how we exercise,
construct our self-image and value ourselves,
internalize weight stigma through self-talk and negative affirmations,
are perceived and treated by others,
negotiate physical spaces (move through and sitting in public areas),
shop for comfortable clothes and feel about the size we wear,
perceive media stereotypes and compare ourselves to the “ideal,”
avoid medical care and receive lower quality services when we do step into a medical provider’s office.
It’s a sea of stress, full of sharks!
Stress and anxiety release cortisol from our adrenals, a physiological cue for food craving. In a 2015 UCLA study, participants were exposed to weight-stigmatizing episodes. “Participants who perceived themselves as heavy exhibited sustained cortisol elevation post-manipulation compared with individuals who did not experience the weight-related stigma.“[1] In other words, participants who self-identified as large-bodied (regardless of actual size or BMI) had cortisol levels that remained elevated far longer than other participants. If we believe that our body isn’t “right,” then further condemnations give us a cortisol boost that stays longer in our body. It’s a double whammy.
These stresses are everywhere.
They will not go away today. They will not lessen until our culture of “all things thin are good and all fatness, real or imagined, is bad” has been disassembled.
But there is something we can do for ourselves in the meantime.
We can change how we react to the triggers and body negative cues around us.
Emotional Resolution®, EmRes®, is a method of clearing out the stress responses and disruptive emotions in our life today. With these responses gone, we can be present and at peace in our fatphobic culture. The stress responses that drive up cortisol and setup weight cycling and disordered eating will be absent.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be fully aware of what, why and how you are eating and know that it is not in response to some external stressor? Instead, it results from our body needs. Or it could be a celebration where some excess is natural.
Imagine looking in a mirror or buying clothes and thinking, “Yeah, that looks good on me, and I look good today.”
What we think of disruptive emotions and errant behaviors is really in response to something in our past. Unintegrated emotions from past high-stress events that we may or may not remember are stuck in our bodies. Through EmRes, past emotions are integrated, and memories become part of our history instead of charged triggers for present situations.
Destressing your life is not about caring what food, clothes, stigmas, stereotypes, or biases in your life. Becoming emotionally free is about being in the presence of those things and making choices that align with your actual needs and values. Let go of the self-judgment and let your internal intelligence and knowledge be your guide.
Happiness will win over stressors because they won’t be stressors anymore.
Make peace with your body. Love yourself again.
Check out the Balanced Emotion Body program
Reference
The weight of stigma: cortisol reactivity to manipulated weight stigma, Mary S Himmelstein, Angela C Incollingo Belsky, A Janet Tomiyama, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25522347/