Hating our body

I met a middle-aged woman at a business meeting the other day. It was a hot day and the air conditioning wasn't working. She started to complain about how she needed to scrape her hair back in a pony tail. She then detailed all the problems she had with her hair, finally ending up saying she hated it and that it had been the bane of her existence all her life.

I was fascinated by this - wow, how much energy had she spent during her life on hating herself. I commented that many people in the world had wild fuzzy hair including our neighbours in PNG. She countered this by saying that their hair was evenly fuzzy while hers stuck out all over the place. She was simply determined that I get the message that her hair was wrong, and finally told me she'd been called scarecrow at school. That explained a lot!

In our society the ideas we hold about body can be so damaging. It can be hard to recognise that if we hate a part of ourselves or equally if we hate a symptom that our body is manifesting then we are hating ourselves. So make a list of all the things you mildly dislike to actively hate about yourself and start to tap.

Even though I hate _______(body part or symptom), I'm willing to learn to love myself.
Even though I don't like _______, I open myself to loving all of me.
Even though I wish I didn't have _______, I choose to love and accept my whole body.

If you were teased at home or school, or anywhere else for that matter, for a particular attribute tap on the incidents and the associated feelings.

Even though the other kids called me scarecrow (for example), I forgive them as well as myself for taking it personally.
Even though I felt humiliated when the kids called me scarecrow, I choose to honour and respect myself.

If you have a sense of shame about aspects of your body do tap on that:

Even though I feel shame about _______, I'm ready to release this shame right now.

Some straightforward affirmations while tapping can also help:

I'm OK with my skin.
I choose to love my hair. etc.

For more information see www.tangibleresults.com.au