Weight-Neutral Wellness: Healing for the Body and Beyond
In today's fast-paced world, it's easy to get caught up in the daily grind and neglect our well-being. We often prioritize our work, relationships, and other responsibilities over taking care of ourselves, which leads to stress, anxiety, and burnout. This is where holistic wellness comes in. It is a harmonious approach to health that expands beyond our physical bodies to include the interconnectedness of all aspects of our lives. It's about taking a comprehensive approach to our health that involves nurturing our mind, body, and soul.
As we distance ourselves from diet culture, the term "wellness" can elicit a range of emotions. For those of us who have experienced body oppression and have a complicated relationship with food, it's understandable that feelings of fear, anxiety, or even angst may arise. That is because our past experiences shape our current perspectives, and wellness is often linked to restrictive or punitive behaviors. Nevertheless, we can reclaim and use wellness to improve our connection with our bodies and invite more joy into our lives.
Years of dealing with chronic illness, negative body image, and burnout from diet culture were the catalysts to my discovery of holistic wellness. Despite trying numerous fitness plans and diets, I was exhausted, frustrated, and confused.
I was tired of constantly fighting with my body and needed to reclaim power in my life. At the end of my rope, I sought peace and a new approach to healing.
During my search, I found an integrative doctor who treated me as a whole person, not just focusing on my weight. She took a holistic approach to treatment and talked with me about my mental and emotional well-being, sleep, spiritual practices, and self-care regimen. That was the first time a medical professional had acknowledged how my entire life affected my well-being.
After my encounter with that doctor, I became curious about holistic wellness. I started exploring and researching independently and was ecstatic about what I discovered. There were various tools and practices that I could use to manage chronic illness, but I also found that they improved my quality of life in general. Instead of focusing on changing my body through dieting and restriction, I was learning how to take care of my body, mind, and spirit through holistic wellness. The overwhelming feeling and frustration I had been living with for so long started diminishing, and I finally felt empowered.
Exploring the concept of holistic wellness has been an exciting adventure for me. I have tried various practices to see how my body and soul would react. While some things were in alignment, others were not. However, I allowed myself to embrace curiosity and let go of expectations. I had been pursuing perfection and quick results for too long due to the influence of diet culture. But I wanted to detach from those approaches and try something new.
I discovered that holistic wellness helped me let go of binary thinking around food, movement, and wellness in general. It was less about "right and wrong" and more about meeting my needs. This shift in mindset has been life-changing for me!
As a fat Black woman who lives with chronic illness, I have found that adopting holistic wellness practices has been incredibly empowering and liberating for me. By turning to a range of ancestral tools and techniques, including herbalism, energy work, meditation, movement, and community care, I have been able to reconnect with my body in new and powerful ways. This approach has helped me to decolonize my body and my approach to self-care and has given me a sense of peace and autonomy that I never thought was possible.
Have you ever considered holistic wellness as a way to help you heal your relationship with food and reconnect you to your body? Holistic wellness is about approaching your health and well-being in a balanced manner. Traditional approaches to health put hyperfocus on the body, which can be stressful or damaging for some. However, holistic wellness can help you understand how your physical, emotional, and spiritual health are interconnected. You can learn to nourish all aspects of yourself and optimize your overall well-being without focusing on weight or food restriction. By prioritizing your health this way, you may experience greater joy, peace, and fulfillment in all your life.
If you want to know more about taking a weight-neutral approach to holistic wellness, I’m here to help and support you! I can help you find inner peace and improve your overall well-being through holistic wellness. I understand that you may feel confused and disempowered about your body, but with my guidance, you will learn simple strategies, mindful accountability, intuitive listening, and ongoing training to shift your mindset and perspectives. These tools will enable you to make positive, sustainable changes in your relationship with your body and help you flourish in life.
To learn more about my individual and group coaching offerings, visit my website.
