Summer has its dangers. One of them is the bathing suit. How often have I heard clients, friends, family and myself in the fierce struggle between “I can’t possibly show myself like this” and “Isn’t it time to accept myself the way I am?”
It can be puzzling how extreme the oppositions are in our own mind, how the experience of our body can go from one extreme to the other. Body image can change as radically as the weather — from a thunder clap to a mellow breeze. It can seem to be entirely a question of mood. One day, in a good mood, I clap myself on the shoulder and say, “Good enough for now – let’s go out and have fun.” In a cocky mood I can say, “Ha, look at me as much as you like, I don’t give a damn,” but in the next moment I can feel ashamed that I believed it and possibly made a fool of myself.
Many women I know (myself included) rarely have the experience of a positive body image. What would that mean? I would say, feeling a harmony between inside and outside – between the self-image I carry in my intuitive mind and the image the mirror seems to reflect back to me. Losing extra weight, exercising and feeling “in shape” are crucial elements for most people. A diet can be a radical game changer in how we feel in this back and forth-dynamic of self-criticism and self-acceptance. Many members of our hCG groups expressed what I also experienced: a feeling of contentedness and relaxation, not fearing the look at the mirror any more. Regaining a sense of youth and liveliness and yes, even a desire to put on that old bathing suit that was stacked way back in the closet…
Hi again, and thanks! That was fun because I hate my self in a bathing suit! Even after the diet, the loose skin and all. Nobody’s perfect but it bothers me. Wonder how other folk did with their summer vacation?