Why you need to stop saying I feel fat

I feel fat

How often do you say, “I feel fat”?

For many of us, using body descriptors to describe our feelings has become the norm.

But fat is NOT a feeling. Neither is gross, ugly, etc.

Using body descriptors to describe your feelings DOESN’T help your body image and in this post I’m explaining why.

I’m sharing a technique to help you figure out what emotions you’re REALLY experiencing.

Tuning into the REAL emotion, (whether that’s shame, embarrassment, fear or anger), helps disassociate the feeling from the body.

When you detach feelings from your body, you give yourself a better chance of feeling good in your skin.

Watch or read below:

Body descriptors are not feelings

Think about how often you use body descriptors to describe your feelings.

So, saying things like:

“I feel fat, big, thin, etc.”

But, these are not feelings.  Fat is not a feeling, neither is big or thin.

Using them to describe your feelings doesn’t improve body image.  Saying I feel ‘fat’ reinforces fat phobic beliefs because it assumes that big is bad.

To start improving your body image, you need to eliminate these kinds of associations

‘Fat’ is just a descriptor like short or tall.  If you’re going to use the word, either use it in a neutral way, or if you identify as fat, reclaim it.

Changing your language

In a world where words like big and thin were just neutral descriptors, how do you think that would impact on the way you feel about your weight and body?

It would probably make a huge difference.

To help you with this, you need to change your language, and speak about how you are REALLY feeling.

The next time you find yourself using body descriptors as feelings, stop to ask yourself, “What am I really feeling?”

This question will help you to process the real emotion and detach that feeling from your body.

So you might feel:

Shame

Embarrassment

Fear

Anger

Boredom

Sadness

Once you can identify the emotion, ask yourself what has my body got to do with feeling this emotion?

It’s more than likely that your body isn’t the source of the emotion.

Quite often we project our shame, embarrassment, fear or whatever onto our body, rather than addressing the real issue.

When I ‘felt’ fat

Recently, I could hear my inner voice telling me that I was feeling fat.

When I stopped to question what was really happening, I realised I was discontented with some aspects of my business.

Digging deeper, what I was feeling in that moment was ‘not good enough’.

This had nothing to do with my body, but my old programming led me to strike out at my body rather than deal with the real emotion.

Try these two questions to help you to disassociate your emotions from your body. I’d love to hear how you get on with them, so please leave a comment below.

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