A Body to Love

Our bodies are concrete, physical. But there’s frequently a distortion between what they are and how we perceive them. When women criticize their bodies, it’s as if they’re talking about something separate from themselves. In my view, this is possible because most of us “live in our head” much of the time, disconnected from the flesh and blood that carries us around every day. When you feel separate from something, you can look upon it as an outsider. And if you’re playing the role of the critic, you don’t have to look far to find the ideal against which to measure yourself: Images of the “perfect body” are everywhere. Whether yesterday’s waifs or today’s sculpted, washboard-abs models, it’s an impossible standard. So how do you forge a healthier relationship with your body? Simply spending more time “in” it helps. For those who don’t exercise, taking daily walks with your attention turned to your body (noticing how it moves, how it feels) can be a great start. For those who do, instead of tuning out with magazines or focusing on burning calories, simply feeling the sensations-your muscles working, your feet hitting the ground-can begin to reconnect you to your body.