Since shifting more into the non-diet space, I’ve been learning a lot of new things, both personally and professionally. I’m currently participating in a Body Image Coaching Mentorship program and have also worked with Kim Basler, whose work I continue to follow.
What I love about Kim’s work is how she brings together mindset, food freedom, and self-acceptance in a way that feels real and relatable. She’s a brilliant speaker, and if you ever get the chance to hear her, take it.
Last week, I attended one of Kim’s workshops on body image.
The room was a mix of adult women and a group of grade 11 students, mostly girls and a few boys.
At one point, Kim asked everyone, “How do you see your body?”
People could share if they wanted, and most did. Among the women, almost everyone mentioned something they didn’t like, parts they were trying to accept or feel better about. A few were more neutral, saying their bodies were just “fine” or “it is what it is.”
The girls’ answers weren’t much different. Some didn’t like what they saw; others didn’t think about it much at all.
The boys’ responses were short and to the point. Things like, “It helps me play sports,” or “It gets me where I need to go.”
Listening to those answers made me think about the conversations I’ve been having in the Body Image Coaching mentorship I’m participating in. I’ve been wanting to understand what really shapes how we see and talk about our bodies, for myself and for the women I work with.
One of the questions that came up early in the program was, “What is a body?”
Not how we see or feel about it, but what it actually is.
It sounds simple, but it’s not.
We spend so much of our lives thinking about how our bodies look or what needs changing that we forget to notice what they are.
That workshop and this mentorship have made me more aware of how much of the way we “see” ourselves is shaped by what we’ve learned to value: appearance, size, youth, all the things we absorb without realizing it.
It’s made me think about how much of what I believe about my own body isn’t really mine.
Maybe take a minute and ask yourself: How do you see your body?
And then, what is a body?
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