Introduction to Body Acceptance

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Welcome to Roots of the Rise with me , sarah Lee . Have you ever looked in the mirror and disliked what you saw ? I'm talking on a purely superficial level , not looking into your soul , but simply seeing the visible form . If we want to truly understand , love and accept ourselves , we cannot escape our bodies . Yes , we are spiritual beings , but we're also living in physical form . Honoring this part of ourselves is essential to real healing and lasting wholeness . So do you honor yours ? This week , we're talking about root chakra issues , and our bodies are an undeniable part of our experience . Part of the task of balancing the first chakra is to understand and heal the body , love it , feel it , validate it , and this is not always easy .

Personal Weight Struggle Story

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I spent the first 35 years of my life being able to literally eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted , with no discernible impact on my waistline . In fact , I was probably in the best shape of my life at 35 . I was fit , I was strong , I was healthy . Don't hate me , because all that changed . I moved south and guys , the food down here is really good and my schedule changed . I went from owning a fitness studio and teaching and being on my feet all day and drinking gallons of water because I was talking all day long to being relatively sedentary , you know , maybe teaching five hours a week instead of 25 . I gained a bunch of weight without even realizing it . I managed to drop it for my wedding , but basically immediately got pregnant and ballooned right back up . I did not get the weight loss from breastfeeding that many women do . The weight just stuck . I recalibrated at a solid 40 pounds more than a healthy weight for me , and it's still here . 40 pounds more than a healthy weight for me , and it's still here . My hormones went out of whack from the pregnancy , followed by two miscarriages . I developed SIBO , likely from the C-section , that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth . I'll talk about it . Some other episode I was super sleep deprived for almost three years because my kid was not a good sleeper . We were warned . My husband and I were both the same way . Basically , weight loss has been really necessary and also seemingly completely unattainable . I'm still working on it , even with everything I know about healthy living .

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My point in sharing all that is that I really do understand that it's hard . I know it on a deep level .

Root Causes of Body Disconnection

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It's hard to not recognize the person in the mirror and to not like what you see . Gaining weight is just one of the reasons why this can happen . There are so many more , why people fall out of love with their physical bodies . Abuse , emotional or physical feeling like your body is failing you , as in with getting sick , infertility , cultural and societal conditioning I mean , especially these days , the comparison culture and unrealistic beauty standards is unreal , largely because it's in our face all the time . I mean , all you have to do is go on Instagram and you will be shown like all the incredible will be shown , like all the incredible beautiful people out there . You know the filters , I mean , are we even seeing real people anymore ?

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Devaluation of the body is perpetrated by many religious attitudes that the body is the root of all evil . Others say it's an illusion or simply insignificant . You know , maybe we have internalized shame due to the messages we were given about ourselves from our parents or the middle school bullies who called us fat or clumsy or whatever . This can turn into body dysmorphia , mental health issues that just spiral back into this self-hatred loop . Sometimes , for some people , this can go to extremes . We can begin to disassociate from this very basic , essential part of ourselves , and the problem with that is that disassociation with the body can produce dangerously disconnected actions , things like eating disorders , unhealthy promiscuity , drug addiction . To lose our connection with the body is to become homeless . You know , there's even this idea that the mind is better , that we should control the body by way of the mind , which is considered far superior , but I don't buy it . You know , the body has an intelligence that the mind cannot even fathom . When you think about all the things that your body is capable of , all the things that it does without you even having to think about it , I mean it really is a miracle even having to think about it , I mean it really is a miracle , and it's a miracle we stay as healthy as we do , given the whole myriad of things that can go wrong . But we try . We read books , how to eat , how to make love , how much sleep to get . There are entire podcasts on this . I mean , gosh , that's part of what I'm talking about , right ? And we impose these practices on the body rather than listening from within , listening to what the body has to say .

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From an Ayurvedic perspective , the eventual perfect diet is intuitive . It's where we simply trust our intuition to tell us what to eat , and when I mean . There are tons of jokes on Instagram about this . You know , when I ask my body what to eat , it always says cake . And that might be true , because we can have faulty programming installed into anything , into any chakra , into anything we do . So let's take food for a moment .

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I mean , for me , one of the few unconditional ways my mom showed me love was with food . You ask any of my friends who would come over to my house . They would tell you she always had treats , brownies , cakes , cookies . She would make us fried dough God , she made really good fried dough . And she was the queen of the root beer float . She had this trick , this wonderful ability to be able to pour the exact amount of root beer in without it overflowing . But it means I associate comfort with food , love with food .

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When I was young I had a great metabolism , right , didn't wreak any havoc . But now not so much and I've struggled to turn off this programming of , get emotionally uncomfortable , want comfort , eat pizza and Doritos and Oreos and cake . It doesn't matter that I could see this pattern unfolding . I couldn't for the life of me turn it off until I finally began to address kind of the underlying needs , the underlying imbalances and what we need , especially the root chakra . What we need is nurturance , is nourishment . Nurturance on all levels is key to taking care of the body . We need to rest , we need good sleep , we need good food , we need to exercise , we need to move our bodies , we need pleasure , we need enjoyment .

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Go back and listen to episode 14 , the physical self-care one . That'll give you a lot of recommendations , but giving ourselves that nourishment can be hard , because maybe we don't think we deserve it . Maybe we don't think we deserve to take care of ourselves . Maybe we think other people's needs are more important than our own . I mean , a good part of the reason why instituting an exercise routine for myself has been so hard is that I tend to prioritize husband , kid work over self almost all the time . I'm getting better at it . I've worked really hard at being better about it , but it's still my natural tendency . It's my default . They come first .

Body Intelligence

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One thing we can do , though , is start to think of our body as an indicator , as a feedback system . This is something we'll talk about a lot . You know that our body is a feedback system designed to help us know when we are off course , when our body is strong , when it feels good , we feel good . That's the power of exercise , as proven over and over again by research . So we have to start getting curious . Ask yourself , okay , when did this begin ? When did I begin not liking my body ? When I talk to myself this way , when I talk down about my body , is it my voice I'm hearing , or someone else's , as we talked about with fear ?

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Look for a positive purpose . Could there be a positive reason why my body is doing what it's doing or why I'm feeling the way I'm feeling ? Am I trying to protect myself from something , with weight gain , for instance ? Not all the time , but one of the reasons why sometimes we hold on to weight is as a protection , a way to avoid getting attention from the opposite sex , because maybe we've experienced physical abuse , some sort of sexual trauma . It's not always the case , it's just an example .

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Now look , I know asking these questions might be really hard and it might stir up a lot of uncomfortable emotions for you If you start asking them and find yourself triggered . Uncomfortable emotions for you . If you start asking them and find yourself triggered , seek help . We are not meant to do the deep inner work by ourselves . I said it once , I've said it a million times we are meant to be supported . There is someone out there , a psychotherapist , a counselor , a mentor , who is the right fit for you to help you move through the difficult questions in a safe and supported way . So if you feel unbalanced with this inquiry , find your person , don't do it alone .

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I mean contemplating the positive purpose of my secondary infertility . At face value , that is incredibly difficult and painful . I just went to a retreat that was designed to invoke the divine feminine and the facilitator asked why are you here ? And I was . As I was talking to my partner , I realized , oh , it's because I want to learn how to love being a woman again . The weight gain , the infertility . I didn't love my femininity anymore , I didn't love my body anymore and while I , like , knew that on some level , I needed time and space and support to truly work through it , and that's why I have mentors . You know , sure , I can look in the mirror , but I need two mirrors in order to see all sides . That's what we all need when we're investigating our deepest wounds , the things that hurt us the most , our deepest wounds , the

Practical Exercise for Body Awareness

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things that hurt us the most .

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So , to give you a place to start , if you want it , try this exercise . It's taken from one of the books I recommend in the show notes . I can't remember which one , but it's one of the Judith books . Here we go Write a statement for each part of your body , beginning with the words I am or I feel so . If you're speaking for your neck and your neck is cramped , I am cramped . If your knees feel weak , right , I feel weak . If your ankles feel unstable , right , I feel unstable . Then read all the statements back to yourself , without defining what body part they came from , so your list might read I feel tense , I feel weak , I feel tired , I feel achy .

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See how this correlates to how you feel about yourself as a whole , and if that's how you experience your physical body , what might you do to start changing some of those things ? What can you do to be stronger , to be less achy ? What needs attention from you ? Not judgment , not punishment , not hatred , but love . You may already know what you need to do , but can't seem to figure out how to get yourself to do it . We'll talk about that in the upcoming weeks a good bit in the third chakra week , since that's all about self-power , self-esteem , motivation , that kind of thing . But for now , just know you're not alone and awareness is always step one . Awareness without judgment is step two . You'll get there , just keep going .

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Tomorrow I thought I would finally do an actual formal personal introduction of myself , who I am , where I come from , why I'm in this line of work . Doing it during a week focusing on the root chakra , seemed appropriate , as so much of my life has been defined by the kind of trauma that is deeply destabilizing , engenders a lot of fear and the general knowledge that it's not a matter of if , but when the rug is going to get pulled out from underfoot . So I want to tell you about it and how I found my way back to trust . If that sounds interesting to you , make sure you follow or subscribe so you don't miss it . This is also last call for root chakra questions , so either click the message me button if you're listening on Spotify or you can email me at rootsoftherise at gmailcom . I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and remember , know who you are , love who you've been and be willing to do the work to become who you want to be .