Thursday, October 16, 2014

Project Be(You)tiful

By The Awakening Center’s Graduate Interns

What do you like most about your body? We recently posed this question to the students attending Loyola University’s Wellness Fair. Once the students decided what they liked most, we asked them to write it on a sticky note and place it on a poster of a blank outline of the human body. Gradually, the body began to take on a form, created by sticky notes. “My hair.” “My smile.” “My boobs.” “My strong legs.” “My unclogged arteries.” “My forearms—they’re jacked.” “My skin.”
            Unlike the photos of the body that we see daily in the media—which represent an “ideal” body that excludes almost everyone—our Post-it person was created through shared affirmation. It was amazing to see how students who were reluctant to participate, or groaned that there was nothing they liked about their bodies, embraced the activity once they saw how many other people had chosen to affirm something they liked about their body. The students created a new, ideal representation of the body that included all sizes, races, genders, and sexual orientations. It was a body that represented both the dignity of the individual and the joy of community. By choosing to love their own bodies, the students contributed towards creating a new ideal.
            We invite you to answer this question for yourself today. What do you like most about your body? What could change if you took a moment every day to remind yourself of your answer?

All the spots for our Body Image Workshop scheduled for October 25 from 1pm to 3pm have been filled; if you’d like to be added to the waitlist you can contact Adriana Speiker at aspeiker@my.adler.edu. Or, Follow The Awakening Center on Facebook or Twitter to find out about all of our upcoming workshops, groups, and events.


2 comments:

  1. Amy Grabowski, Director The Awakening CenterOctober 16, 2014 at 12:48 PM

    Thank you so much to all the interns for representing The Awakening Center at the Loyola Wellness Fair. As we get the word out that it's OK for people to feel positive about their bodies even tho we do not look "perfect" - this message will spread to others.

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  2. I like my booty! It has taken me years to accept it as beautiful, especially tough in my adolescence. I have found my own empowerment with loving it, shaking it, and claiming it. It has changed how I look at other's bodies, too. I am less judgement of others as I become more accepting of myself.

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