I’ve decided to add some structure to the “Body Image Rehab” blog. In looking through my books the other day, I came across a book I purchased a number of years ago called “200 Ways to Love the Body You Have” by Marcia Germaine Hutchinson, Ed.D.
This book includes 200 short exercises designed to aid in increasing appreciation and love for our bodies. I’ve decided to incorporate these exercises into my blog posts. I will complete an exercise and share the thoughts and insights I gain through the experience.
About “200 Ways to Love the Body You Have”
Marcia Germaine Hutchinson states that learning to love our bodies is a process that involves several basic activities:
- Getting to know your body and your relationship to it.
- Making conscious choices about how you would like to live in and feel about the body you already have.
- Recognizing and transforming the negative “self-talk” that keeps you stuck in body struggles.
- Discovering who you are, and trusting and valuing the self that inhabits your body.
- Recognizing that your sense of self-worth can rest on much more than the state of your body.
- Allowing your feelings about your body to benefit by association with the person you are.
- Realizing that mastery over your body can never make up for a life that is only partially lived.
