As a personal trainer, competitor, daughter, friend, etc., I’ve picked up on something. And it’s nothing new, but I’m building a better understanding of it from listening to myself and those around me.
The “it” is the idea of needing to fix things about ourselves that we may not be happy with. And that unhappiness is usually caused by outside sources creating standards or trends. A lot of this falls to the way we look at and feel about ourselves. All too often, I hear my clients, friends, family, and myself say things like:
“I’m fat”…”I want to lose fat here”…”I want to tone this/that”…”I won’t look good enough in that”…”My diet sucks”…blah blah blah.
I spoke to myself like this a lot post-show. Actually TOO much, which lead me to binge eating, negative self-talk, and more. And it’s tough not to do that at times. And I know everyone goes through moments like these.
The event that spurred this blog post is the group of dancers that I meet with once a week to do strength training with. They’re all high school aged and definitely at that time in their life where they want to look like people on TV or in magazines and so on. And the hardest part is getting them to understand that maybe fixing whatever they feel needs to be fixed, is NOT going to make them happy in the long run.
Sometimes it’s REALLY hard not to think that way. And people are always searching for the next best thing to fix the part of their body that they aren’t happy with. But the only way that I can help or you can help yourself, is being ready to do so. Knowing if you’re ready to help yourself and “fix” those things that you dislike about yourself, you have to decide and take control.
When confronted with this, I ask my clients, family, friends, myself:
Is it a change that you want to make to better yourself?
– OR –
Is it a change that you want to make because society says you should look a certain way?
Whatever the answer to either of those questions are, the best thing to do is to LOVE YOURSELF as you are today, tomorrow, and everyday, because change isn’t going to happen overnight.
Loving yourself leads to positivity which leads to a greater likelihood of you working towards the changes that you want to see, in a healthy way (i.e. eating properly vs. starving yourself, etc.). Whereas if you’re always negative towards yourself, you’re always going to be putting yourself down and with that, motivation can’t be found or built.
Speak, act, and fuel your body and mind in a way that makes you feel good. Your body reacts to the way you speak to yourself, and your mind reacts to the way you fuel your body. Be Good to Yourself.
