Friday, February 20, 2009

Interview about Isabelle Tierney about how to love your body!

FEATURED INTERVIEW in Vive News
real world, real people, real results
The Body Beloved, the inside out way of loving your body
with Isabelle Tierney

Isabelle Tierney is a licensed marriage and family therapist who holds an M.A. from Tufts University in Child Development, a certificate in Play Therapy, a certificate in Brennan Healing Science, and an M.A. from Boston University in International Relations and Communications. She's been in private practice internationally since 1996 with a specialty in eating disorders.

We sat down with Isabelle Tierney to learn more about her Body Beloved philosophy. Here's what she had to say.

VIVE: Please share with us broadly the philosophy that you have developed that helps us learn how to love our bodies from the inside out.

ISABELLE: Yes, it's called Body Beloved, the inside out way of loving your body. I have found that most of us try to love our bodies by loving the outside of our bodies. We say to ourselves, "If my body looks good from the outside, if it looks thin enough or buff enough, then I can love my body. If it isn't perfect from the outside, then I need to hate my body." A much deeper and more effortless way to love your body is to love it from the inside out because our bodies are incredible, magnificent creations that are capable of doing miracles for us 24/7.

VIVE: It sounds like you dive into more of the internal interactions of how we view and treat our bodies. When I go to the gym, I think about whether I was good or bad because I had those four cookies last night.

ISABELLE: One of the ways that I work with the body is by seeing it as a partner, a partner that I can choose to love or hate. I used to go to the gym to lose weight because my thin body meant that I was "good enough". This became obsessive and exhausting and eventually fruitless, because the size of my thighs does not determine who I really am. It also led me to constantly hate my body, because it could never be as thin as I thought it should be. Now I go to the gym with a completely different attitude. I go to the gym to actively love my body, to give it a gift to thank it for all the work it constantly does for me. For example, I dedicate my workout to a specific body part, be it my heart, my muscles, my bones. As I exercise, I focus and feel gratitude for that body part, and my workouts become filled with love and with joy rather than hate and obsession. It's fabulous!

VIVE: So you find that this is actually motivating? I like how you're talking about dedicating an action to an outcome. Now, when it comes to eating how do you apply this same philosophy?

ISABELLE: Same thing, right? We're eating to feed our bodies, and the more we eat things that support our bodies, the more the body is going to thrive. When you give it, let's say, avocados and salmon, this is actually food that the body can use to feel better and work better for you. When I eat junk, I think, "My body's just having to work harder for no reason just because I'm wanting those cookies." I try as often as I can to eat food that actually enhances and helps my body stay strong and healthy. Then it's a win-win. If I give it good food, it's going to work better which, in turn, means I'm going to feel better.

In seeing my body as my partner, I actually practice four relationship skills that we all use every day with people in our lives. Practicing these skills does not only make me take better care of my body but also improves my ability to use them towards other relationships as well! Skill #1: Listening. How well do I listen to my body, its hunger, its fullness, its tiredness? Skill #2: Positive Communication. Do I speak kindly towards my body? Do I use loving words? Skill #3: Give and Take. How do we meet our body's needs and our personality's needs when they aren't always in sync, ie. when I want a cookie and my body really needs vegetables. Skill #4: Active Loving. Can I do a loving act towards my body at least once a day, treating it as though it was my beloved?

VIVE: Our theme for this issue of VNN is Valentine's Day or love. What's one thing you'd leave us with in closing?

ISABELLE: That you're missing out on the most loving relationship in your whole life if you miss out on seeing what a partner you have with your body. There is literally no other partner out there that is as perfect, amazing and miraculous as your body and we often miss it because we are so busy hating how it looks! The Body Beloved is all about inviting you to shift your perception of your body from the outside-in to the inside-out, allowing you to open up to love and gratitude every day of your life.

VIVE: Thank you Isabelle. We look forward to speaking with you again soon and providing us with monthly tips on how to love our bodies.

ISABELLE: Thank you.

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Thursday, February 05, 2009

I wish my Body could speak louder!

A client and I were commiserating today about how we wish that our bodies could more clearly let us know when we are hurting them. If I anger my husband, hurt my children, or disappoint a friend, I will usually know by seeing and/or hearing their reactions. This will allow me to change my behavior, as I don't want to purposefully hurt anyone.

Our bodies are not so clear. Just like the Earth, we can hurt them over and over again without feeling a great cost. Yes, we might feel overfull, tired, or achy, but so what...It is so easy to ignore those sensations. We know they'll pass anyway. We know that we won't get "in trouble" as we would with a loved one.

One of my best friends is battling breast cancer. She told me that she is convinced that she got it because she didn't take care of her body for so many years. Her body has finally spoken loudly enough to be heard. She is now being incredibly loving and kind to it and we both hope and pray that she'll be able to heal.

Do you really want to wait to get sick to finally listen your body? Our bodies are constantly communicating to us, but they sound like the "still, small voice" that we so often refer to as God. Can you take the time to listen fully to that voice? It speaks with a language of sensations that you need to learn to decipher for yourself. Overfullness might actually means that your body was given too much to eat and now has to work long hours to digest. Exhaustion might mean that you are not nourishing your body enough. Achyness could imply that your body is getting sick, or that you've overworked it, or that it's tired. The body communicates through thousands of sensations every day. We can choose to listen to it or not. We can choose to complain that it's not clear enough or loud enough. I know what I want to do: I want to keep practicing listening, for not only will it make me a better listener of my body, it will make me a better listener for anyone who enters my world. My body is my teacher and I am deeply grateful.

Labels: loving your body, overeating. exhaustion.

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