Internal Family Systems (IFS) revolves around the idea that all of us have many “parts” or inner personalities, and that each part has its own individual way of handling various situations to manage the system (ourselves) as a whole, often in well-meaning but self-destructive ways. Through the power of a processes called Self-leadership and showing compassionate curiosity toward our parts, we are able to relate to and understand what each of our parts really needs, so that we can heal as a whole.

Words and the stories you tell yourself have the greatest power over the way you view yourself — above anyone or anything else — which is why you must take great care to nourish yourself with words and thoughts that serve you instead of harm you.

While many people associate self-compassion with its gentler and softer side, rest assured, self-compassion can be strong and fierce as well, protecting you as a mother bear protects her cub. Learn more about the importance of fierce compassion and how use it while practicing self-care.

The body is one of our greatest sources of wisdom, but as our sense of embodiment becomes more disturbed, we start living, in a way, apart from our bodies, which in turn leads to harmful practices such as disordered eating. The key to eating disorder recovery is to rediscover your sense of embodiment. Because every time you listen to your body’s signals and respond appropriately, you build trust with your body strengthening confidence in yourself.

We need to be kinder to ourselves, especially when it comes to what we eat and drink. We may think enforcing rules surrounding food is the way to maintain control, but really it only perpetuates our feelings of anxiety and inadequacy. Intuitive eating on the other hand involves listening to your body’s natural wisdom to guide your food and drink choices, and is a compassionate approach to nourishing your body.

Rather than allowing negative thoughts to bully you and affect how you feel about yourself, start practicing these five mindful ways to respond to your negative thoughts (and even befriend them to understand how they are trying to help you).

The road to recovery is usually a long, nonlinear one that can sometimes feel like it’s a never-ending journey. By having patience and making room in your life to practice kindness day by day when you’re experiencing difficulty as you recover, you will discover a different way to be with your emotional pain and to motivate yourself with compassion.

We live in a culture that provides countless ways to question our worth and few ways to trust and love ourselves, including with our food. To overcome all these confusing messages about what and how much to eat, we can become intuitive eaters, which empowers you to listen to the natural cues of your body to determine when and what to eat, and enables you to make peace with food, your body, and yourself.

We’re often own own worst critics when it comes to our bodies, but showing ourselves compassion is proven to be effective at alleviating the experience of pain and suffering from negative body image and promotes self-acceptance.

Of the myriad of human emotions, shame is arguably the most distressing of them all. Learn how self-compassion can be used to minimize harmful feelings of shame.

The practice of self-compassion can help ease and even eliminate the mental turmoil that perfection causes.

Our need for love and belonging is as essential as the physiological and safety needs. To truly feel love and belonging, we must start with self-acceptance.

Body image disturbance is one of the hardest challenges to overcome in eating disorder recovery. Not only is it one of the most difficult issues to treat, but also it is usually the last hurdle to be overcome during eating disorder recovery. Yin yoga offers an accessible entry into allowing a different experience of one’s body.

Through the years I have found that how we approach or handle one aspect of our lives can reflect how we approach other areas of our lives. So if this fear about not having enough or not being enough has you cluttering up your closet, how is it affecting the way you eat? 

So you survived the long Thanksgiving weekend, and now you are feeling bad about your body because you enjoyed the delicious food and drink with your family and friends. But the key to beating your body image blues may be in practicing self-compassion.