What’s your best piece of advice
to spa professionals to help them
share the message of positive
self-image to their guests?
I had to remind myself to just take the step in front of me and
keep aiming myself in the direction of the kindness and love I so
craved.
P: How important is it to find a support system in order to
help you heal?
S: From my own experience, having a partner who loves your
body is incredibly healing. It’s hard though because you can’t
just walk down to the corner store and buy one, right? If you
want to heal your relationship with your body, it’s helpful to
let go of or reduce the impact of people who treat your body
like it’s an unwelcome guest, and spend lots of time and
energy on people who invite you and your body in just the
way you are. Trying to get over body-image issues with a
body-shaming partner is like trying to climb the Mt. Everest
with a bulldozer strapped on to your leg. It makes what is
already difficult impossible. ‘
P: You wrote in your memoir: “The times I felt closest to
full were not at the dinner table but on my yoga mat.”
What about practicing yoga gave you the satisfaction
that food can’t?
S: Spreading my toes and feeling the muscles on my legs
engage in a warrior pose, breathing, listening, moving, noticing where my body began and ended: yoga was the first time
I ever felt my mind, body, heart inhabiting the same space.
Still, when I step on my mat, I feel a sense of landing there,
of being truly home.
P: You are a supporter of Health at Every Size® (HAES)
movement. How do you show your support to the movement and how did you hear about it?
S: That’s a great question. It’s funny because I didn’t hear
about the Health at Every Size movement until the journey of
healing my body image and eating issues was nearly complete. What thrilled me about the HAES community was
finding a group of people who had come to the same conclusions via clinical research that I had come to via yoga and
meditation: that being compassionate and loving to our
bodies is the most effective approach to personal health and
well-being. n
Receiving a massage treatment is one of the single
most effective ways to promote a positive relationship
with your body. To those who offer and facilitate
touch healing for other bodies: You’re superheroes!
Thank you for all you do.
One suggestion is to send silent blessings to your
clients as you massage them, such as mentally saying,
“This part of you is beautiful, and this part of you is
beautiful…” over and over. You might be surprised at
how many clients “hear” the affirmations through your
touch.
In the spa environment, see if you can model
comfort, ease, and enjoyment in your own body. To
allow someone to feel trul 䁍