Letter to my body, thought i would share

[astrogirl]

it helped me a lot to write this, and so i thought i would share, i hope some of you might find this encouraging and maybe even be inspired to write your own

Dear body,
I know we have had our differences in the past and may currently still have some, but I am happy to say that I am working on loving and treating you better each and every day. I appreciate everything you do for me more and more as I gain my strength and health back. I know that I have treated you unfairly, and have much too harshly judged you for far too many years now.

No matter what you looked like I was always so certain that you were fat, disgusting, ugly, and never good enough, for me or anyone. I was never very nice to you, and treated you badly through all of the constant starving, bingeing, purging, cutting, over exercising etc.…and these days I am grateful to you for sticking through those hard times, and still not giving up on me, no matter how bad it would get.

Did I ever thank you for the gifts you have given me, for functioning through those difficult times [Edited by Asylum], or for surviving things that nearly killed me? No, I don’t believe I ever really appreciated it until now. Instead, I had blamed you for the difficulties I faced, and the tough things that went on in my life. And the funny thing is, there is not a thing that you prevented me from doing that I really wanted to do. Had I ever really missed school, or lost friends because I was not physically perfect? No…Sure I may have blamed you for past relationships that didn’t work out, but who needs a relationship if it is based solely on your looks and not your personality? I deserve better than someone who is going to dump me just because I am not “perfect” (and there IS no such thing as perfect anyways!)

Throughout this past year, I have finally realized just how cruel I have been to you. I realize that bodily perfection is unattainable, and that being skeletally skinny is not perfection anyways. Who you are as a person, on the inside is much more important. As it turns out, when I stop being so cruel to you, treating you so badly, and criticizing everything you do, I am actually a much happier, more confident person. I am finally learning to love you for who you are, and for what you allow me to do each and every day of my life. Not for how thin you are or what you look like. Instead I am learning to love you for allowing me to do things to reach my goals. I appreciate that you allow me to do all sorts of activities that I love, including skiing, horseback riding, painting, and other things too. I appreciate that you can let me have fun with my friends (and I am now learning to have REAL fun without thinking every second about what others think of me, what I look like, etc…) and I appreciate that you are now giving me the strength to be able to care for others as well (because before, I could barely even care for myself…)

So thank you so much, body, for everything you do for me. I am proud to be with you, and am pretty damn lucky to have a body like you, who has been with me through thick and thin (no pun intended) without much complaint. You do an excellent job, and I am FINALLY learning to love and appreciate you for who you are, and what you can do, not what you look like.
Sincerely,
Aimee V.

[Jen]

Aimee, this is amazing! Writing a letter like this is so powerful. It's clear that your mindset has really shifted from the way it used to be. Keep up the hard work and keep this letter close to you, so if you have a hard moment or day you can refer to it and remember that you are making major progress!

[Casey.]

Aimee, this is amazing! It's really hard to write something like that, to come to a realization like that, I'm so proud of you! It sounds like you have taken a good turn. As Jen said, keep the letter with you, so that in the future, when you are feeling low, you can use it to remind yourself of how great your body really is.