“Dear Body”

Author: Valarie Bittner M.A. CPC

Dear Body . . .

As we enter the new year, it’s a new opportunity to jump in with an attitude of self reflection! There are invitations all around us to set resolutions for change. The culture of new years resolutions often poses the problem of the changes being based on chasing after the approval of the popular culture, with pursuits based on weight loss and dieting. These pursuits set us up for failure! Rather, we can choose to start the year with an attitude of self reflection and commit to improving our body image.

Our relationship with our body has some similarities to a relationship with another person. When a relationship becomes damaged, healing requires that we re-build trust and connection – through gratitude, recognizing unhealthy and hurtful behaviors and committing to changing them, affirmations, and looking ahead to the relationship growing with time. We can adopt these same themes to improve our body image and grow a relationship with our body of trust, acceptance and appreciation.

Self reflection journalling can be a helpful tool, including the journal prompt below.

Dear Body,

1. I want to work on healing our relationship and moving towards peace and acceptance. I want to start by thanking you – for the ways I see you healing and being resilient, and for all the ways you allow me to engage in my life, like . . .

2. There are things that have compromised our relationship in the past and have hurt you. And I commit to being mindful of these things and working on eliminating them. Some of these things have been . . . (comparing, negative body talk, shape checking, body avoidance, food behaviors, excessive exercise)

3. You have some amazing strengths and abilities like . . .

4. Some of my hopes and dreams for our relationship in the future are . . .

Let's commit to growing our relationship with our body into one of trust, acceptance and appreciation!