February Week 2: Body Trust Building

Recently, I had to move an old dresser out to the street for bulky item pick up day. As I pulled it backwards, I lost my footing and fell hard on my butt on the concrete. It was a tough tumble, but amazingly, my butt cushioned the landing and I wasn’t hurt. I was very thankful for my butt. I needed my sturdy bum and it was there for me!

I thought about the many years I spent wishing I could literally cut my butt off of my body because I thought it was so big and bubbly and horrible. In making my own Shift, I had made peace with my butt. I had Shifted my relationship with it to see how strong and powerful it was.

I know that you have heard of “body building”—but have you heard about BODY TRUST BUILDING?  This is the mastery skill building topic that we will focus on this week--a kind of “body appreciation” week.
As we enter our second week of our month of trust, I would like to see if we can begin a small love affair with our amazing body.

BODY TRUST BUILDING

• “I have a slow metabolism and can’t lose weight.”
• “Why do my arms have to be so jiggley? I can never wear short sleeves.”
• “My feet kill me if I walk too far…”
• “The fat that rolls over the top of my pants when I sit down is disgusting.”

We have 80,000 thoughts that go through our mind a day. How many of yours are negative ones aimed at your body and how it looks, how it acts, how it feels? We think negative thoughts about ourselves and our body so often, it becomes a habit and we don’t even notice when we are doing it.

However, a deeper part of us is always listening and building our level of distrust around our body, making us feel somewhat guarded about ourselves and our body’s ability to ever measure up.

This attitude about the most amazing creation on the face of the planet is not only self-defeating, it actually cripples our weight mastery efforts. If we cannot trust our body, how can we achieve long term weight management?

Our Inner Coach needs to begin to build up trust between ourselves and our bodies. This week, I invite you to try on this easy body trust building exercise:

1. Each day pick a body part that you do not like.
2. Think about at least 3 things that body part does for you that are positive and powerful.
   Example: My butt:
   -Allows me to sit in a chair comfortably.
   -Keeps my backside warm.
   -Cushions me if I fall backwards
   -I am learning to trust my butt—it is always there for me no matter what!
3. Repeat those thoughts to yourself over the day as you use that part of your body.
4. Repeat the exercise each day with a different body part for the rest of the week

Note:—the body part that you pick could be small like your nose, or large like your torso.

Use truthful statements. If you say something you do not mean--“I love my butt”-- your unconscious mind will reject it. You can say more honestly: “I am moving in the direction of loving my butt”.

Have fun and enjoy trusting your amazing body this week.