Pillar 2

Mind
Matters

If pillar 1 is the equivalent of a body-shame yard sale (except we don’t want anyone else to buy this junk), then pillar 2 is emptying out the attic and basement and considering what we might do with all the amazing space we’ve freed up. Once we have stopped imbibing body shame on a daily basis, we can begin to explore how our old ways of thinking have kept us stuck in cycles that dishonor our bodies. Body shame not only shapes how we see our bodies but also clouds the lens through which we view our lives. If living a radical self-love life is a process of thinking, doing, and being, then Mind Matters asks us to try on some new mental attire. Let’s call it the season’s latest collection on the radical self-love runway.

Guess what? Your brain is part of your body! Why am I yelling this? Because too often we treat our brain as though it’s a separate operating system tucked away in a room we call the skull. Our tendency to divorce our brains from our bodies is one of the sneaky ways in which body shame thrives. Isolating our brains gives us permission to treat them differently. Depression, bipolar disorder, and other examples of neurodivergence are stigmatized because we are unwilling to extend the same care and treatment to our brains that we afford our bodies. If I broke my arm and never went to a see a doctor, not only would I be in extreme pain, but the people in my life would be incensed by such a reckless choice. Yet we often make statements like “It’s all in your head,” minimizing the experiences of our brains and neglecting their care.

Reintegrating our brains and our bodies is a necessity for a radical self-love life. Pillar 2 highlights how our reintegration gives us access to new levels of care and offers us new opportunities to examine our thought patterns and, with hard work, create new ones.