Pillar 1

Taking Out the Toxic

To live in a world of body terrorism is akin to forcibly imbibing three hundred milk jugs of body shame daily. From the moment we turn on a television, radio, or computer in the morning until we close the laptop or put the phone on silent at night, we are inundated with messages relaying our supposed inherent deficiency. The average adult consumes fifteen and a half hours of media each day, and even when they don’t contain overt body shame, the shows we watch, the music we listen to, and the articles we read deliver messages about bodies in the world, including our own. Taking in toxic messages blocks our pathway to radical self-love without any real effort on our part. Just walking down the street or standing in the grocery store checkout line can be a stroll down body-shame lane thanks to billboards, bus advertisements, and tabloid covers.

By engaging in the everyday activities of our society, we subconsciously absorb views about our bodies that are antithetical to radical self-love. Therefore, being connected to our thoughts is a crucial process for battling body shame. The tools in pillar 1 are about identifying our external and internal body-shame chatter and learning to quiet the “outside voice” blaring inside us. The following exercises are designed to help you begin today to revolutionize the way you live and love in your body. Use these pages to try on new ideas, challenge faulty beliefs, and forge new pathways guided by a radical transformative love.