Rewriting Your Story About Your Body

What if body image is less about the size and shape of your body, and more about the beliefs you hold about it?

"My body isn’t good enough."

For many people, this belief, and others like it, fuel stress, suffering, and disordered eating. When we believe our bodies should be different, we might experience chronic stress and worry. And, we're vulnerable to engaging in disordered eating patterns such as restricting food, adopting rigid food rules, binging, exercising to compensate for eating, or ruminating about our appearance. The hope is that if we can finally get our bodies "right," we’ll feel good enough.

But what if the belief itself is what needs to change?

Our beliefs about our bodies are often shaped by messages we’ve absorbed from family, peers, relationships, social media, and diet culture. Over time, these messages can start to feel like facts. We stop questioning them and begin organizing our lives around them.

But a thought can feel true without being the truth.

In her YouTube video⁠, Jackie Jackson, a neuro-conditioning specialist, explores an important idea: much of our suffering comes not simply from what we experience, but from the beliefs we hold about that experience. When it comes to body image, we can become so attached to the belief that our bodies aren’t good enough that we mistake it for the truth. But a belief is not a fact just because we’ve repeated it for years or feel it deeply. Many of our beliefs have been shaped by messages we’ve absorbed, comparisons we’ve made, and standards we’ve learned to accept without questioning.

The hopeful part is that we can challenge the beliefs that cause us suffering and create a more peaceful experience of our bodies. We don’t have to wait for our bodies to change to begin feeling differently about them. By recognizing a belief, questioning whether it is true or helpful, and practicing a new perspective, we can gradually loosen its hold on us. We may not change how we feel overnight, but we can begin to change how we relate to our bodies—and how much power our body-related thoughts have over our lives.

Exercise for Positive Change

Inspired by Jackie's work, this simple exercise is designed to help you transform negative beliefs you hold about your body. By shifting these beliefs, you can improve the way you feel about your body and cultivate a more positive body image.

An Experiment: What If Your Body IS Good Enough? Let’s try something simple. Instead of telling yourself what’s wrong with your body, what if you challenged the belief that your body isn’t good enough?

For the next seven days, take a few minutes each day to write down three reasons your body is good enough just as it is.

They don’t have to be profound, and you don’t have to believe every word at first. Just give yourself a chance to consider a different perspective.

Here are some examples to get you started:

Why my body is good enough:

• My body allows me to hug the people I love.

• My body carries me through my life, and it doesn’t have to look a certain way to do that.

• There is no one right way for a body to look.

• I see people in all kinds of bodies who are beautiful, loveable, and worthy.

• My body allows me to laugh, dance, rest, experience pleasure, and connect with others.

• The beauty standards I compare myself to are unrealistic and constantly changing.

• I don’t have to change my body to deserve respect or feel good about myself.

• Body changes are normal and common.

• I deserve to wear clothes I enjoy and participate in life today.

• My worth is about who I am, not the shape or size of my body.

Tomorrow, do it again. Write down three more reasons your body is good enough.

Notice what happens as you practice. Do the words come more easily? Do you begin to see your body a little differently? When the familiar critical thought appears, do you find yourself questioning it rather than automatically believing it?

You don’t have to force yourself to love your body, and you may not notice a change right away. The point is to give your mind repeated opportunities to consider a new belief instead of rehearsing the old one.

A belief you’ve practiced for years may take time to loosen. But each day, you can practice a different way of seeing yourself.

You don’t have to change your body to begin changing how you feel about it. Start by writing down why it is already good enough.

Inspiration and credit: Inspired by ideas shared by Jackie Jackson in this video. The exercise is an original application of the idea of recognizing and challenging limiting beliefs.