One of the trickiest parts of embracing your divine body (to once again trust in the body’s wisdom and be able to live fully in your skin) is coming to an understanding how to make decisions and interact with the world. How we engage in decision making so important because there is a lot of information to navigate and information to process on our journey to body sovereignty. Especially when it comes to our bodies. Opinions (expert and otherwise) that seek influence our decisions about how our body should look, what we should eat and how we should move our body are everywhere. In this body media maelstrom, how do we make decisions that are right for us?
I have found developing a practice of discernment can help a lot. To become body sovereign we need to intentionally open our eyes to the influences that surround us and consciously choose how we will determine what is helpful to us in our journey and what to disregard. But before we can do that, we need to take an important first step. We must be willing to embrace that we are the ones who get to decide when it comes to our body and our relationship with it. We get to decide what self-care means. We get to decide what health means. And we get to decide how we feel about and experience our body.
For most of us, that is quite a big leap! For so long have we assumed we are not to be trusted – that we must look the experts, especially when it comes to the body. Women generally have been socially conditioned to not trust ourselves or our ability to think critically. A whole consumer culture has been built around making choices for our bodies. The diet, fitness, and wellness industries are predicated on the notions that 1) we cannot be trusted to make good decisions for our body and 2) the body in and of itself cannot be trusted. The wedge that has been driven between ourselves and our body sovereignty is big business.
But it need not be…we can choose to learn to trust ourselves, make informed decisions and jump off the hamster wheel! Now is the time reject the lies that keep us buried in indecision and body shame. Offer yourself the gift of Discernment and embrace you’re your body sovereignty. In upcoming posts I will be breaking Discernment down, looking at the different components (Mind, Body & Soul Wisdom) and tools, such as critical thinking, identifying assumptions, intuition, experiential knowledge, and body wisdom. But for now, I invite you to consider these questions for reflection:
What influences the decisions I make, especially regarding my body? What does health and wellbeing mean to me? What does self-care mean to me?
How do I decide which expert/outside opinions I trust and those I don’t?
In what ways do I already tap into my own wisdom?
What are my personal values and how have they shaped the decisions I make about my body?
Thank you for reading!
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Want to work with me? Online Individual Counselling and Coaching to Support Your Body Sovereignty Journey. For more information or to book a session:
Email: sydney@sydneybell.ca
Call/text: 519-501-8953