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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