Get Naked!

Welcome back to the Made for More podcast. In this episode, we’re talking about body image, self-awareness, and the disconnect so many of us feel between our mind and the body we live in. I’m sharing a simple but powerful tool that has helped me normalize the way I see myself, quiet negative inner dialogue, and build a healthier relationship with my body. This conversation is about learning to observe yourself with less judgment, more compassion, and creating a sense of familiarity instead of shame. If you’ve ever struggled with feeling uncomfortable in your own skin, this episode is for you.

You were made for more than hating the body you are in!

Xoxo- Miranda 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome back to the Made for More podcast. I am your friend and your host, Miranda, and basically like your guide towards internal personal development deep work. I am constantly just asking myself, why am I the way that I am? How can I show up better? How can I learn? And how can I just better myself into a position where I am showing up as more of me and I'm stepping into the potential of more of who I could be. So I can only guess that you're pretty intrigued based on the title of this episode, right? You're probably wondering, where are we going? What are we doing? And what are we talking about? And honestly, the title gives it away. Like we're talking about getting naked. Today we are talking about normalizing being naked. And I'm going to tell you that this is probably not what you think it's going to be. This is actually going to be a conversation centered around body image. Because if we're all honest, we all have moments and times and seasons and phases where we get consumed with our body image, or we get taken back by catching a glimpse of our body, and we want to hide, cover up, change, act like it doesn't exist. And yeah, I feel like I'm someone who I try to have a pretty decent relationship when it comes to my mind-to-body connection, how I think and how I speak to my body. I try to be kind to my body. I try to be mindful about the words that I use around my body, especially as a mom. I want to be careful and insightful of what I say about my body because I am raising a little girl who I don't want her to have some of the same issues that I feel like I developed. I want her to see what it looks like to actually have a healthy understanding that you can love your body, even if there's things you wish you could change. So today my encouragement simply comes from the fact that we are transitioning into summer. Summer means lighter, smaller, more vulnerable clothing like tank tops and shorts and bikinis. And it never fails. I feel like every year, as we start getting a little bit warmer and you go to put on that first pair of shorts, and you've been wearing sweatpants and leggings and jeans for months and months and months, the shorts feel very exposing and it feels very uncomfortable. And for me, um just to be completely transparent, my legs are something that I struggle with. I've always had bigger, thicker legs, and my legs are really strong, but honestly, I just don't feel like they look strong. I don't feel like they match the strength that they can perform. And so for that reason, it causes me um insecurity. And so I can either stand in a place where I completely cover up and I never wear the cute tennis skirt or the athletic dress or the shorts, or I can choose to be brave and to know that I don't have to earn those shorts. I don't have to do anything to deserve the shorts, I can just put them on. And it just feels uncomfortable because for months you've been wearing something that covered you up. And um when I get to a place where I feel like the body dysmorphia creeps in and I start picking myself apart or wishing I could change something or wishing I was someone else or wishing I looked like someone else or wanting to shrink something, I realize I have to go back to one thing that works really, really well for me. And that is getting naked. And what I want to say is that I learned years ago something very powerful that I did postpartum was I remember just thinking, I'm just going to stand in the mirror completely naked. It was either before or after a shower, and I was like, and I'm just going to observe. I'm going to observe the image that I see in the mirror. I will not pick it apart, even when instantly that thought crosses your brain of like, oh, I didn't know that it looked like this, or I didn't know that that was like that. I just wanted to observe what I saw, accept what I saw, and be kind to what I saw, because a postpartum body was completely different than a body that I had ever known, right? So I began to do this method, postpartum, and I would take a few minutes, like I said, either before or after a shower, because that is typically when you're naked and alone. And so I would just take a moment and I would look at my body and I would just spin and I would look and I would be soft and I would be kind to my body. And what that did to my brain was one, it allowed myself to get used to what I actually looked like underneath all the layers. That way, when I saw myself in a less exposed or a more exposed way, such as a bikini or shorts or a tank top, I wasn't in complete shock because I'm seeing this. Because how often are we actually naked? Not like you're taking your clothes off, you're getting in the shower, and then you're putting stuff back on. And it's like, no, I just wanted to take a minute to observe what I saw and to learn to be kind. And honestly, I've carried this routine throughout the course of my life. And it's not as common, but I try to, when I catch a glimpse of myself before or after a shower in the mirror, I will just be kind to myself and I'll just notice. And don't get it wrong, your brain is instantly going to say things to you like, Oh, that's disgusting, or you should be smaller, or why can't you this? Or that should be like that, or whatever. If only you did this, or you need to change this. And what I want to say to you is while it is normal and it is also okay to want to change certain aspects of your body, it's also okay to look at your body and to thank it exactly for what it is and exactly how it is, even if there's things you want to change, lift, sh cut off, shape, you name it, please know that everyone feels some type of way around their body. Every single person does. And I think it's important to be naked and to look in the mirror for just a few moments and to observe because if you're learning to catch those thoughts as they creep in, where you feel like you want to, you have like shame and you want to clothe and you want to hide and you want to cover so you don't have to see it. It's like if you just stand there and you go, okay, this is really uncomfortable, it feels a little bizarre because I've never done this before, but I'm just going to kind of take an account for who I am. And when I look at my body and I start to pick my legs apart and wish that they looked differently, or wish that the texture of my skin was more smooth, or that I didn't have broken blood vessels or veins in certain areas or scars, I tell myself, these are two strong, beautiful, powerful working legs. I do not have to beat them up just because they're not perfect. And this really helps your mindset. That way you can, you know, go out into the world and you don't feel shame around your skin and the skin that you're in. And I think life is just too short to walk around absolutely hating who you are and covering up and hiding who you are. You will miss moments. You will miss getting in the pool and splashing around with your family. You will miss going to the beach and walking around because you have a fear of being seen. You will miss being in photos if you hate the way that you look. But the more you start to look and connect and talk to yourself differently, the more you start to accept what you see, the kinder you become to yourself. And I think that these things are very, very important because it it is hard, especially as a female, there's a lot of pressure, I feel like, on females in general, but on the female body and on the female body to look like you've never had a baby or to look like you've never struggled with weight gain and fluctuations. And um, one thing that I've always appreciated is honestly uh brands like American Eagle and Airie, which if you look right now, if you go on your phone and if you look on your the app or the website of American Eagle or Airie, you are going to see models in the photos who might look more like you. They might have a little bit more of loose skin. Maybe they have pigment um discoloration, maybe they have scars, maybe their skin has cellulite texture, maybe it has dimples, maybe they're bigger, maybe they're smaller. It's not just some picture perfect, flawless, smooth-skinned, beautiful, stick-skinny model. It's people that might look a little bit more like you and I would look in those clothing. And I've always appreciated that they shifted their branding and their marketing like a while ago. I I believe it's them. It's either them or Target, either has models that are also in like wheelchairs. Like I feel like, wow, like I've never thought about that. Like to see normal people or to be looking for someone who might look like you. This also makes me think of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour documentary. She mentions that the reason that when you look at all of her dancers, they're all completely different, is because she said, I wanted every single person in my audience to be able to look at the stage and to be able to find someone that looks like them, that's shaped like them, and to be able to relate and feel seen. And I just thought that was so beautiful. And, you know, if we're not careful, we get absorbed into this idea that we're all supposed to fit this one mold. And that's just not true, right? Not not all bodies are supposed to be the same. But I think connecting your mind in a strong way to how you speak to your body can really, really help you because we are taught that our value is in the number on our genes or our value is in the number on the scale. A scale is another good example too. I tell myself every single time mentally before I step on a scale, which is just a couple times a week, but before I step on a scale, I tell myself, this is not my worth. This is not determined what I'm going to do the rest of the day or how I'm going to speak to myself. And before I get on the scale, I look at myself in the mirror, naked, and I tell myself, like, this body is strong. Like I go ahead and name a few things that I'm proud of or confident of because that number can really get to your head, right? You can step on the scale and all of a sudden you're four pounds heavier than you were a couple days ago and you're like, what the heck? But that's okay. Like, as long as you have a good mind-to-body connection with yourself. I really think that this is going to shift a lot for you and how you see yourself and how you see the world. And honestly, it's going to bring you a lot of ease. You can be present in the moment because body dysmorphia can really rob you of a lot of joyful experiences because you can be so fixated, even fully clothed. You can be so fixated on your body and either hiding it or blending in or comparing your body to other bodies in the room. And I just think that you are worth more than that. So I just wanted to encourage you with a quick tool that I use. And as odd as it's going to feel the first couple of times, I really do encourage you to get naked, stand in front of that mirror, observe. And before you try to throw a towel around you or clothes on you, I want you to just take a deep breath and like you know, maybe even laugh. Like just be like, this is so different for me. But as your brain starts feeding you feedback, it's going to feed you instant negativity. And I want you to go, okay, that's just a thought. I'm going to hold the thought and I'm going to release that thought and I'm going to pick a new one. I'm going to say, Yeah, but these arms are so strong. Look at what all they carry. Look at who all they help serve. This body is so strong. Like this body is fine. This body is beautiful. And I want you to begin to capture and release certain thoughts and then hold tight the right thoughts. That way you can carry it with you. And honestly, doing this is going to help you because then the next time, like I said, you go to get into a summer dress or a summer tank top or shorts or a bikini, like you'll feel a little bit more connected and a little bit more free and a little bit more available to be in that bikini or be in that swimsuit because you will know that you didn't have to earn it. And you'll also be so used to seeing the exposure of your arms or the exposure of your ab abdomen. And you'll be like, I'm I'm fine as I am. This is such a powerful tool, and I feel like it's gonna remove a lot of the negativity away from how you feel about your body. And I use this tool time and time again. I will like get away from it because of life, and then when I start feeling like that body dysmorphia creep in, or that thought, that internal false belief of like I shouldn't wear the shorts, my legs are too big, I shouldn't wear this, you know. Then I go back to hey, what can I practice again to help me understand that I my body is never the problem. It's okay to want to change things, it's okay to want to work on things, but my body right now in this moment is not the problem. My mind is. And so I've been going back to this project of standing in the mirror, absolutely naked, and being alone with myself and observing and being kind to myself. And you deserve the same thing because you are made for more and you always have been.