“The problem isn’t that we have bodies; the problem is that we’re not living in them.” – Geneen Roth
Working with women who are insecure about their bodies has taught me many things but the biggest lesson? We tend to abandon our bodies instead of inhabiting them, especially when things get hard. When we are working on changing ourselves (whether it be with more positive or more negative intentions), we tend to start living outside our bodies. We don’t want to inhabit our bodies right now because they don’t feel good enough yet. So we choose to live more through our minds than inhabiting our physical body.For many women, the ultimate question becomes: Why would I want to live in my current body if I am striving day in and day out for a new one?
When I work with women around inhabiting their bodies, I share a story with them.
I used to the master of living a short distance from my body. I thought that if I completely inhabited it, the emotions I kept bottled up and the emotional realization of the weight I was carrying around would destroy me. So instead of trusting my body could take care of me, I abandoned it. I remember being on holiday in the West, looking at the most beautiful royal gorge in the world, and not really being ‘in the moment’ to really enjoy it. I was so focused on the next workout, the next meal, and how my body looked in my hiking clothes. As you can imagine, I was not even remotely enjoying one of the prettiest views I have ever seen. Why? Because I wasn’t allowing myself to be where I was. I was choosing to live outside my body which, to be truthful, can keep you miserable. The only way to stop this, to start living more fully in the body you have now, is to learn how to inhabit it.
Where do we even begin to inhabit our bodies?
By coming back to your breath and reminding yourself that you have a body, each and every day. The only way to inhabit it is by residing in it and being aware of the sensations that come up for you throughout each day. As Geneen Roth says, “there is no way back to the body; the body is the way.” We start to inhabit our body simply by choosing to be aware of it. You bring yourself back to your breath, back to your body, thousands of times a day just by noticing and feeling what is happening in and around you. Suddenly you realize that you have arms, you notice the sound of your fingers striking the keyboard, and everything feels new. For example, as I write this, I am noticing the chair pressing against my legs, my toes as they extend across the hardwood floor, the fullness of my belly after eating breakfast, and the sound of the whirling wind outside the window. It is as simple as that.The body is the way. The way to bring yourself back. Time and time again, over and over.
It is the way to come home to yourself and start living a life of more complete freedom. A mindfulness practice that can extend into any area of your life. And over time, you start to realize that it is not unbearable to reside inside your body; it is unbearable to live outside it.Like what you read? Join the free 7-day Body Acceptance course + receive even more support and resources to reclaim your power and embrace your body!
