Daily Practices to Cultivate a Positive Body Image Relationship

There have been a number of tools and resources I have used with clients over the years to help cultivate positive body image. This episode shares with you the process of a negative thoughts journal and depersonalisation as daily practices to help you shift from a negative to positive body image relationship. The first step is to bring awareness to the thoughts that are entering your mind. Your thoughts are driven by your beliefs, and your thoughts and beliefs then dictate your actions, which compiled over time, create habits. Habits, when repeated, confirm beliefs, and so the cycle continues. The problem is that your beliefs and thoughts are shaped by your past. They may be shaped by people, things you have heard or seen, traumatic experiences or even patterns you have witnessed in society. Most of your deepest beliefs were created prior to the age of 8 years old.  The part of our identity known as our ego (which we all have by the way!) likes to continuously confirm our beliefs to be true. As a protective mechanism, our ego does not like to be wrong. So the ego ensures that our actions and habits always confirm what we believe to be true.  Where as our beliefs and thoughts are founded by our past, our actions and habits create our future. What we do in each moment is a stepping stone into our future. An example of this is with our movement. Going for 1 walk doesn't IMMEDIATELY change your health outcomes, but if you were continue to be more active consistently over time, that creates better health outcomes in the future months and years of your life. However, if your beliefs and thoughts are shaped by your past, and play such a significant role in your actions and habits.... then the reality is you are repeating the past over and over again until this cycle becomes interrupted.  Completing a negative thoughts journal or the depersonalisation exercises regularly are a powerful way of disrupting this pattern at the source. Have a listen to this episode to find out more!