Eating Disorder Hope is a leader in the online Pro-Recovery Movement. We are passionate about helping those in eating disorder recovery find hope, health, and healing. With the understanding that recovery allows you to fully participate in life and contribute to the world around you in meaningful ways, we are honored to support your journey and give you a platform to share your voice.
Rebuilding Body Image
Kirsten Haglund
Hosted by Kirsten Haglund of Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center
May 12, 2016
EDH: Welcome to today’s #EDHchat! Our topic is about Rebuilding Body Image
EDH: Special thanks to @timberlinetoday for helping us make this Twitter chat possible!
EDH: We would like to start by welcoming our special guest @kirstenhaglund
EDH: @kirstenhaglund is former Miss America, NEDA Ambassador & Community Relations Specialist for @timberlinetoday
EDH: It’s great to have you all here today! Let’s get started with some of our questions. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your current role.
Kirsten: As Community Relations Specialist for TK, I travel around the country speaking at universities, conferences, host community events and moderate panel discussions
Kirsten: I also help run our Twitter & Instagram accounts, blog, and do other media.
Kirsten: Through my Foundation, started in 2009, we raise funds for eating disorder treatment.
Kirsten: I also serve as a NEDA Ambassador.
EDH: What do you think impacts a person’s body image?
Kirsten: Body image is complex and influenced by many factors.
Kirsten: One usually cannot help but be influenced by their parents’ body image, in particular, the mother’s comments and attitude toward her body.
Kirsten: This helps form a young woman’s idea of what her relationships with her body should be
Kirsten: One of punishment and shame, or one of acceptance, love, and respect.
Kirsten: Also, environment.
Kirsten: Body-conscious environments like dance, sports, modeling, entertainment can be triggering for negative body image.
Kirsten: Body Image is also heavily influenced by peers; their comments about their bodies and others, the media they consume.
Kirsten: The media influences body image through advertising, fashion, television and movies, which often present a highly unrealistic body ideal in their images.
EDH: Have you struggled with body image in the past?
Kirsten: Yes, growing up as a ballet dancer, I compared my body constantly to my fellow dancers and professional ballet dancers that I aspired to be like
Kirsten: My perception was that I didn’t look like them and never would
Kirsten: Access to student counseling center with an eating disorder specialist to identify & make treatment recommendations.
Kirsten: As an adolescent I compared myself to friends and equated thinness with success and achievement.
EDH: What has helped you achieve and maintain a positive body image?
Kirsten: Through recovery from an eating disorder, I discovered a new and wonderful relationship with my body.
Kirsten: It began with acceptance, and I had to choose it..
Kirsten: I had to will myself to wake up in the morning, look at my body in the mirror every morning, and accept it for all its perceived flaws and weaknesses.
Kirsten: I had to accept the body God had given me, instead of punishing it into submission.
Kirsten: Practicing acceptance was hard, but truly led to a deep love and appreciation for my body.
Kirsten: As I started to heal from anorexia, I discovered a love for my muscles and my strength, a profound appreciation for the energy my new body had, and what it could propel me to do.
Kirsten: I loved that my body allowed me to be active.
Kirsten: Today, I’ve learned not to “compare and despair.”
Kirsten: Every single one of us is different and that is beautiful.
Kirsten: I have learned that I can’t worry about what I cannot change – and I can’t change others, and I can’t change certain elements of my bone structure, or other things I was born with.
Kirsten: I understand my body not as something to be disciplined, but as something that brings joy and energy and life.
Kirsten: It took hard work to get that viewpoint to change, but it has, and practice makes permanent.
EDH: What support and resource tools have you found to encourage positive body image?
Kirsten: What media we consume is so vital to developing our body image – so monitor what you see.
Kirsten: I follow body positive role models, clinicians and bloggers on social media.
Kirsten: I choose not to read certain fashion magazines or blogs that I know perpetuate negative images and standards for women
Kirsten: I utilize my own social media to encourage positivity and post uplifting and inspirational articles and stories.
Kirsten: ED Hope provides great articles to promote positive body image, as does our own TK twitter account!
Kirsten: Also, NEDA’s Proud2BMe is a great site for teenagers looking for wisdom and guidance related to body image
EDH: What steps should someone take in order to rebuild their body image?
Kirsten: Practice acceptance, every single day, even when you don’t feel like it! Especially when you don’t feel like it.
Kirsten: Also, pay attention to the thoughts and comments in your head about your own body, and about others’ bodies.
Kirsten: Are they positive or negative? Would you say them out loud? If not…. Should you try to think about changing those thoughts?
Kirsten: Get in the habit of “taking captive” negative or destructive thoughts about your body and others’ and replacing them with more positive and truthful ones.
Kirsten: Finally, appreciate your body with spoken or written affirmations, heaping praise based on what it can do, the things you love about it
Kirsten: Recognizing it as just one part of your – your soul, your mind, your heart being just as important, if not more so.
Kirsten: Also, pay attention to the media you consume, and consider the effects if might have on your thought life.
Kirsten: If it encourages negative thoughts, maybe it’s time to go on a media diet!
EDH: What encouragement might you offer to the individual struggling with their body image today?
Kirsten: It does get better!
Kirsten: Getting up each day and practicing radical acceptance of who you are and what your body looks like right NOW (not yesterday, not tomorrow) works wonders. I promise.
Kirsten: And you are more than what you weigh, what size your jeans are, or what you ate last night.
Kirsten: Your beauty shines from the inside out, and the love and respect that you show your body will not only heal you, but will be a beacon of light to others.
Kirsten: You are a body image ambassador, and when you love and accept yourself the way God made you, you spread relief, love and tenderness to women going through the same battle.
Kirsten: Be strong for yourself, for others, and for the next generation who looks to you to discover how they should think about their bodies.
Kirsten: We can make an indelible impact!
EDH: Thank you to everyone who participated in our Twitter chat today! And thank you for the great insight @kirstenhaglund
EDH: If you are struggling with body image, we hope this message has brought you hope and encouragement
EDH: Please stay tuned for future Twitter chats from EDH!
EDH: If you are in need of resources for an eating disorder, visit Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center at http://www.timberlineknolls.com or EDH at www.eatingdisorderhope.com
The EatingDisorderHope.com editorial team comprises experienced writers, editors, and medical reviewers specializing in eating disorders, treatment, and mental and behavioral health.
