THE BODY HEARS WHAT THE MIND SAYS!

Guest Contributor: Susan Searle


In a world where Kim Kardashian is Queen and social media is everything, #lifegoals are set by posts from celebs on Instagram.  Where perfect lives and bodies are portrayed on Facebook, there is an increasing number of women, particularly young women, who feel inadequate, unable to live up to such high expectations, which are only snapshots of other people’s lives (and perfectly angled snapshots at that).  One thing I see a lot are clients who want particular physiques.  Young girls want to look like Kylie Jenner or Kim Kardashian, doing endless squats in the gym, drinking ‘detox teas’ and whatever fad being promoted by their favorite celeb.   
  

Something I have always struggled with and something a lot of women I train struggle with is body image.  This issue manifested even more clearly when I became a Personal Trainer when I turned 30.  I felt the pressure to look a certain way, to shrink my body to fit the standards I believed I had to adhere to ‘look the part’.  I spent weeks…months…years obsessing about how my body looked and no matter how lean I got I was never happy.  I would scroll through Instagram looking at pictures of what I believed to be ‘perfect’ bodies and mine just did not seem to measure up, no matter how hard I tried.  I trained hard and I ate well every day, why wasn't my body doing what I wanted?

I would frequently look at myself and use words like fat and disgusting, this negative self-talk was so normal for me I did not think there was anything wrong with it, until my clients started to come to me and tell me all of the negative things they thought about themselves, they would hide under baggy clothes, say the most awful things about themselves and tried to beat their bodies into submission through over training and restricting their diet too much.  The things they would say to me would actually bring me to tears.  I could not believe these beautiful women felt so horrendous about themselves and then I realized I felt exactly the same.  It dawned on me that THE BODY HEARS WHAT THE MIND SAYS! You cannot continuously punish your body and expect it to just get in line.  



I knew then things needed to change! I made a decision then to take the focus away from the physical and really celebrate all of the wonderful things my body could do and I would encourage my clients to do the same.  I did a photoshoot where the pictures were aimed on displaying strength, as that is where I personally find beauty.  The most freeing feeling in the world is when you are released from the exceptions of other and live your own truth. Be your own kind of Beautiful! Live Your Truth! You are already enough! You are Beautiful!


Big Love
Sue
Live Healthy Lift Heavy






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