Hi and welcome! My name is Sydney and I am a dietitian in Seattle, WA. Last post I wrote about treating the body like a project and the disconnection and pain that can arises from a self-objectifying relationship. If a strong, steady nutrition base is your goal, creating a body relationship of respect, care or neutrality is very helpful. Today let’s use imagination to explore six different ways of relating to the body.

Tending the deep roots of your body relationship is possible and worthwhile. It begins with the question, “What could be possible if I allow myself imagine a new way?” In working with clients over the years, I have witnessed the empowerment that emerges from forming an intentional relationship with the body based on one’s own values.

There are Other Ways

Personal and collective body healing rely on our ability to see a new way forward. Below are six body imaginations. Some of these may feel true and active for you right now, and others may feel aspirational, out of reach, or irrelevant. Wherever you find yourself in this moment is ok. Try on what speaks to you, and leave the rest.

Unconditional Body Respect: Body respect is the knowing that your body is inherently worthy of respect beyond any condition. This means taking care of it, feeding it adequately, tending to it’s comfort, giving it play and movement it enjoys, and keeping it safe to the best of your ability. It sounds like “Body, you are unconditionally worthy of safety, respect and care simply because you exist.” This can be said in neutrality, or with a sense of love and tenderness.

Body as Nature: This means seeing and sensing the body as an exquisite part of the natural world. A wonder for existing. A marvel of time, biology, sensation and experience. Understanding the body as part of nature makes space for curiosity, diversity, unique beauty, and awe. It sounds like “Body, I see you as a living, breathing being. I am a creature, just like all of the other species here on Earth. I approach you with curiosity and respect, as I continue to experience you. ”

Body as an Unfolding Process: Your body is an emerging process that is constantly changing. When you close your eyes, what do you feel? What hurts? What feels good? What feels numb or out of reach? The body as it exists right now is a doorway to the present moment. In relation to nutrition, it might sound like “What is my body telling me in this moment about my nutritional needs? Am I respecting or resisting/rejecting/numbing any emerging communications, such as the experience of hunger or fullness?”

Unfurling like a fern, in your own time and way.

Living from Body Values: Living from your body values is possible when you begin to align your intentions, thoughts, and actions. The first step is to understand what your values are. Maybe you value body respect, a relationship of care, or tending to your health. Perhaps you wish to cultivate a relationship of listening and curiosity, or one that actively rejects systems of body hierarchy and oppression. Living from your body values is empowering and creates a greater sense of harmony.

Body Neutrality: If the thought of building a warm, loving relationship to your body makes you roll your eyes or cringe, you are not alone! For some people, an ideal relationship to the body is a neutral one. Not warm and fuzzy, not negative, just one that exists. In such a relationship, the body is a place to exist, it is the place you live your life from. You do not feel loving and excited about your body, and you also do not hate it. Body neutrality might sound like, “My body exists. My body allows me to experience life.”

Body Love & Appreciation: A relationship of love is one that encompasses respect, communication, celebration, tenderness and care. Love creates an unconditionally positive regard, and worthiness. This is not to say that the body always feels positive, but that the relationship is one of unconditional acceptance. Body love might sounds like “Thank you body for all that you do for me. I love and adore and cherish you. I care for you with loving attention as best I can. I do my best to uplift you, comfort you, and celebrate you. I make decisions that allow me to feel good in my skin.”

Embodying these imaginations when the dominant culture remains oppressive is not always easy. It requires openness the possibility of change, and willingness to unlearn what you may have been taught your whole life. It may mean stepping away from connections or spaces that do not uplift your relationship to your body. There is power in defining one’s own values, and freedom that comes from stepping away from all that does not uphold them.

Beyond the individual benefits of peace, healing, empowerment and health that emerge in the intentional cultivation of relationship to oneself, I wonder; what kind of society could form from a collective engaging in the above imaginations? What kinds of policy, law and community would emerge in the realms of food security, equality, parental leave, work life balance, and safety?

Here’s to our unbridled imagination, individual and collective!

If you would benefit from support in re-imagining your relationship to your body, to food, and to eating, please reach out! I am currently accepting new clients and it would be an honor to do this deep and important work by your side.

In solidarity,

Sydney

Collective Imagination & Body Liberation

There are Other Ways

Your Body Is Not A Project