Body Positivity: Health at Every Size

Body positivity (BP) is a social movement that encourages people to have an attitude of acceptance for their bodies, no matter their shape, size, or the way they look in clothes.  The goal of this movement is to encourage self-acceptance and the belief that we all deserve respect.  It also challenges society’s beauty standards and attempts to combat body shaming and low self-esteem due to body image issues. The Body Positivity movement is also especially important for those who are overweight … [Read more...]

Helping Adults Cultivate Healthy Friendships

A recent article in the Washington Post by Ana Homayoun (https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../skills-friendship.../) laid out some rules to help parents encourage their children to develop good relationships with their peers. As I read it, I realized that the guidelines she laid out could also apply to adults. Why, you might ask, am I concerned about adults making friends? After all, don’t we already have them? Well, just like with children for whom making friends is a developmental task, as we … [Read more...]

The Tyranny of Body Image

A friend told me recently about a horrible experience she had with a doctor.  She was sick, went to an urgent care, and before she could finish reciting her symptoms to the doctor, he told her she needed to lose weight.  She left there feeling like all he saw was the way her body looked – not that she was truly sick, not that she was smart and organized, not that she was successful – and his reaction fed right into her own struggles:  She had trouble giving herself credit for any of her … [Read more...]

BODY IMAGE: Are We STILL Worrying About That?

As someone who has always struggled with her weight, I have, in recent years, focused on eating healthier, doing more walking, and cherishing the extra energy that gives me. What I have not been doing is focusing solely on what the scale says. I was very pleased to see an autobiography from TV star, Valerie Bertinelli, called “Enough Already” about how the actress and food show host is essentially delivering the same message. The nice thing about famous people writing books about popular topics … [Read more...]

What Qualities Do You Want to Nourish In Yourself?

Recently I read an article by the CEO of Korn Ferry, Gary Burnison, about how to define grace.  He sees it as the goodwill of people who help others.  During the past year, and before, as we all struggled with the COVID epidemic, there were many examples of people who cared for others, helped them physically and lifted their spirits emotionally.  Just think about the people who hung out of the windows of buildings in New York City and cheered for health care workers and first responders.  Or the … [Read more...]