When food is feeling hard, it can feel impossible to think about food in any other way rather than an obstacle that is impossible to tackle. It can feel like things will never get better or less hard with food, or our relationship with our bodies. It can be hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel and believe things will get better. It is really easy to sink into thinking that the way things are now are the way they will be forever. That said, as human beings we have a myriad of emotions all the time, and those emotions directly impact our relationship with food and our bodies. For that reason alone if nothing else, our relationship with food and our bodies are not stagnant.
How do we start to recognize that our relationship with food and our bodies is an even changing thing rather than something stagnant that doesn’t shift and change? This can feel next to impossible at times. One thing it can be helpful to think about is that if we know our emotions change over time, and we know that often our emotions impact the food we eat and how we feel about our bodies, then it makes sense that our patterns with food and our relationship with our body would shift and change over time as well.
So what does that actually mean? Ultimately, it means that even during hard times, as much as we may be struggling, we can rest in the knowledge that things can and do get better. More importantly, being able to sit with this awareness can help with managing the feelings of guilt and shame that tend to come with our struggles. If we can look at it from this standpoint of I’m having a hard time right now versus I’m bad, there is something wrong with me, etc. we actually put ourselves in a better position to address our struggles. As much as we can (maybe somewhat subconsciously), think that what we are doing when we pile on shame in a situation is somewhat motivating ourselves (almost an if I am mean enough to myself I will make changes type thought process), that’s not usually the case. Typically, all this does is demotivate us rather than truly inspire us to make changes. If we can keep that in mind, we can truly put ourselves into a better position to make positive changes and change our relationship with food and our bodies.
Questions about this subject or anything else food/body image
