Ok beautiful, we’ve come a long way.
I don’t just mean my husband and I (we’ve moseyed our way over to Salzburg, Austria!) – I mean you!
In this Nice series, we’ve talked about how to plan a lifestyle shift that lasts, and how to learn your unique style for keeping your appetite in its natural range. We’ve learned that our various reactions to our bodies when we are unhappy are aptly termed ‘body shame,’ we learned how that shame plays tricks on us, and we learned that we can parse it into what our bodies may be actually crying for attention for, or not.
Last week, we talked about the importance of learning to discern the objective state of our health so we can better hone in on what any excessive thoughts about our bodies may be trying to tell us.
I really want to emphasize the importance of this. Our goal is for the truth to set us free. If we keep stuffing what our body is trying to tell us, there will always be something stuck underneath the surface, and whatever the wellness problem may be, it is only going to keep getting worse and aggravating other problems. We have to have the courage and the discipline to pursue the information we need about our body’s objective health, so we can do what is best for it.
Now, whether our body is in great health or struggling, many of us still have a lot of negative thoughts and feelings about our bodies.
What do we do with those?
There are a couple of things to note, and a couple of things to do.
First to note: as we attend to our wellness, our outlook is likely to become a lot more positive. A new study out of the Harvard School of Public Health noticed a trend among the 43,685 women whose diets they followed for 12 years. Women who consumed foods that raised their levels of inflammation, such as soft drinks and refined grains, and consumed fewer inflammation inhibitors, like olive oil and veggies, were 29 to 41 percent more likely to be depressed. The lesson? Healthier foods mean a happier chica!
Second, we live in a culture where often, it’s a lot more acceptable to complain or be negative than to have the view that, ‘actually, everything is pretty great!’ After you’ve spent possibly the first 20 years of your social life articulating what you don’t like about your body to your friends and family, you have likely internalized a lot of those negative opinions about yourself, whether you truly meant them in the moment or were just trying to fit into the self-deprecating conversation!
So this gives us two ways to make big changes right there:
First, by cleaning up our lifestyle, our outlook is going to brighten up a lot as our body comes back into balance.
Second, stop RIGHT NOW bashing your body. Find a different way to participate in such conversations – ideally, redirect them. If a friend starts to say something negative about herself, make your new go-to response, ‘Aww, don’t say that! You’re gorgeous babe!’ Even if she disagrees with you, politely persist and then change the conversation. Don’t allow her to bash herself and certainly don’t join in with some derogatory remarks about yourself. You’re both beautiful!
Now, obviously, I’m not espousing that you run around telling everyone how gorgeous you are! Haha, that’s not the answer either!
So what are we to do?
And perhaps much more important, what do we do with the nagging negative thoughts that are much much deeper than just hormone-induced negativity, or replays from our party scripts? What do we do with this soul-deep feeling that our bodies aren’t good enough, or aren’t good at all?
Well, my love, telling you this is my favorite part. 🙂 I have heard this mistaught so many times it has broken my heart – and, I’m sure, many others unnecessarily.
There are 4 things you need to know:
1. God adores you
2. God loves your body – and declared the human body ‘very good’
3. You are not perfect (no one is!), and that’s okay
4. Your body is for God’s glory and purposes (and your enjoyment! 🙂 )
I’m going to start diving into each of these topics over the next few weeks as we keep traveling through Europe, slowly introducing what for me has been the life-changing concept of body stewardship.
For now, I want you to work on parsing – hopefully you’ve started researching and pursuing – or even just reflecting on – your body’s objective health. And once you’ve got that on a roll, start to discern where your thoughts about your body are unfounded. THAT’S where lies are hiding, and the more specifically you can hone in, the more effectively we can take them out. 😉
That’s it for this week darling – stay tuned for the next round of VLX, getting a little ‘live and on location’ oriented!
Love and Freedom,
Jackie
P.S. Wondering about the castle and locks picture? It’s a hint for next week’s post! And a powerful illustration of how much glory the lies we believe may be holding us back from… 🙂 But more on that next time! <3
