How To Overcome Your Negative Body Image

Today is about helping you get to a place where you’re finding more peace and ease with your body. I am going to give you TWO tangible steps you can begin using TODAY to start on this journey. 

These are two really powerful steps that I use with all of my clients who are struggling with body image. If you’re really committed to this, you may find it a bit time-consuming at first. You’re changing an identity, a thought system, and a belief system about who you are. So it should take time.

But here’s the thing. You’re already spending time on this, you just do it so automatically (and in a way that’s not serving you), that you don’t even notice it anymore. All I’m asking you to do is bring it to your awareness so you can change it, and that can feel like you’re doing more work. 

Alright, let’s get into it!

You’ve Got To Decide To Stop Saying Negative Things About Yourself

I get it. You’re probably thinking that this sounds so obvious or too easy. You just want to know HOW to make yourself stop saying bad things about yourself, right?

Well, the first step on the path to overcoming a negative body image is to understand and REALLY believe and know that no one ever got to a healthier or positive relationship with their body by hating it. You can’t hate yourself into loving yourself. 

The more you pick yourself apart and put yourself down, the more these negative thoughts cement into your subconscious and the more that you act, behave and feel in ways that support those unconscious thoughts. This negative feedback loop has probably already been on repeat for quite some time in your thoughts, but now we are going to bring it to your conscious awareness so you can work with it. 

Every single time you become aware of a thought that you don’t want to be a part of your reality, your goal is to:

1. Catch that thought – recognize you’re having the thought
2. Name the thought  – “I hear myself saying XXX to myself”
3. Remove it – “this is not a thought that serves me”
4. Say “change” or  “stop”

Don’t worry about replacing that thought right now. 

Your first mission is to just become aware of the insidious ways that these negative messages about your body come up over and over again and tell yourself to stop. Think of it as turning off a faucet in your house. You don’t have to do anything with the thoughts right now, you don’t have to change them into something flowery and positive, you just need to turn the faucet off. Stop the flow of water that is drowning you in negativity. 

Imagine Or Decide Who You Want To Become

A lot of us know what we DON’T want to feel but we have a hard time coming up with what we DO want to feel. Can you relate?

What would it feel like to not have these negative thoughts? Who would I be if I loved myself? What would that look like? What would that feel like? 

• Become clear about what you would replace those thoughts with.
• What would a person who felt good about their body feel like?
• What kinds of things might they say to themselves?
• What would it be like to become that person?
• Write it down, say it out loud, think about it in your head, and do what works for you

Give Yourself Time And Grace

With these two steps, we are retraining the brain to think differently and produce different thoughts, actions, and behaviors. This takes time. Depending on how old you are and how long you’ve been struggling with body image issues, you’ve been training your brain this way for probably decades. As you work through them, give yourself some time and some grace with this process.

Want to learn more about how to stop these negative thoughts, and what to do instead? You can join my 14 Day “Ditch the Diet Jumpstart” program. This program has everything you need to get you started on your path to a healthier relationship with your body.