Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, or DBT, is a model of therapy that emphasizes skills-based interventions to help develop coping strategies and effectively manage moods. Sacred Self is one of the skills taught through DBT. This skill is a powerful tool for mindfulness, self-validation, and self-love. As we break down this skill, please try and envision what this would look like in your life.
Diet culture can be harmful and put you at risk for developing an eating disorder or form disordered eating habits. Diet culture is a pervasive belief that appearance and body shape are more important than physical, psychological, and general well-being. It is more of an idea that if you can control your body, and more importantly your diet, this is normal. Diet’s emphasize limiting what and how much you eat, it can lead you to count calories or choose low fat and low carb options. You can develop more attention towards weighing yourself frequently and if you don’t reach your weight loss goals or gain weight, this can negatively impact your mood and motivation. Diet culture normalizes labeling food as good or bad and thinking it is more of a transaction. This means, you either earn it or don’t deserve it depending on how much you have exercised or how you have eaten that day or week so far. Beyond this, it can extend to labeling yourself as good or bad for eating some of these foods.
Body neutrality is a movement and approach to redefine our values and standards of ourselves, shed the pressures of societal beauty standards, and love ourselves in an entirely new way, not on appearance, but function. We can learn more about ourselves and focus on acceptance of ourselves, without an inherent focus on our bodies. Below are a few ways to move toward a body neutrality stance toward ourselves:
One of the most important relationships that make up your life is the relationship that you have with yourself. The way that you treat yourself, talk to yourself, or even follow through on promises you’ve made to yourself can impact your overall mental health and wellbeing. It is easy to fall into a cycle of pleasing others and seeking external validation, however, this takes away from your ability to trust or even love yourself. The relationship you have with yourself also directly impacts the way in which you connect with others.
Many of us can acknowledge the value and importance of self-worth. Higher our self-esteem, we feel better about ourselves and are more resilient. When your self-esteem is higher, you are also less vulnerable to anxiety and stress. Even though it is great to have higher self-esteem, improving our self-esteem is no easy task.
Often when we think of Valentine’s Day we think about hearts, love, gifts, and planning. For many who struggle with anxiety or worry thoughts, Valentine’s Day can be full of worries around disappointing someone else. Worries around being alone and your future relationships can also come to mind if you do not have a partner. For those struggling with depression, cynical thoughts around the unworthiness of finding love, cynical thoughts around the commercialization of the holiday, or hopelessness around finding a partner may occur. With so many thoughts like these, it is likely that Valentine’s Day can be difficult for many!
Whether you're in a relationship or not, focusing on self-love and kindness is crucial in order to support and love others as well. Often when we are single during Valentine’s Day we can feel frustrated with extravagant gifts, or feeling we have to buy presents. While we may have varying opinions on Valentine’s Day, we know it’s celebrated so why not take advantage of it and celebrate you?
