How Diet Culture Starves the Soul

It struck me.

At the height of dealing with an eating disorder, I had become disconnected from so many things. Numbing out to hunger cues often numbed me out to internal cues in general.

Furthermore, rules around exercise and food so often become a life script when struggling with disordered eating and being a slave to diet culture. And in a culture so immersed in unhelpful messages around food and our bodies, I wonder how many of us experience this to varying extents, eating disorder or not.

The problem is even bigger than this. Bigger than a distraction from life, bigger than diminished nutrition.

If it’s true that true beauty is God’s Life at work in me, in us, and in the world at large, it’s so important that I be attuned to internal cues. God working in my Spirit, nudging me in certain ways. And those cues happen in my body.

But what happens when I, or when we, purposely sever that relationship?

Back then, I was suffering from so much more than a disordered relationship with food and my body. I suffered from being disconnected from my spirit, my soul. The wellspring of Life.

That being said, I believe diet culture is the enemy of our soul and of our creativity. Our ability to join with God in creating new and beautiful things in the world comes from our connection with Him, the flow of eternal Life within us.

So, when we numb out to our hunger or push past our body’s cues of being tired or overwhelmed or exhausted in the pursuit of losing weight or looking accomplished or productive, it is us who is really losing out.

We are losing out on the human experience of being connected to our soul.

So, will you join me in beginning to notice again?

Notice how your heart swells when you see an enormous sunset or kids laughing at something ridiculous. Notice what excites you, what causes your heart to beat faster, and what begs you to join the cause.

You see, we are meant to live fully alive.

Not to stand by the Flow of Life and miss its energy because all of our thought, time, and drive has been used in the pursuit of abs and cleanses and Instagram perfection.

The Flow of Life is here. It’s in our midst. So, let’s wake up, feel Its presence, and jump in.

**If the term “diet culture” is new to you, here is a definition from registered dietician, Christy Harrison from Episode 22:

“ a system of beliefs that is pervasive in Western culture. And it's a system of beliefs that worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue, promotes weight loss as a means of attaining higher status, demonizes some foods while elevating others, and oppresses people who don't match up with its supposed picture of health and wellbeing…”

Are you tired of being sold a broken brand of beauty?

The brand of beauty we are so often sold as women is way too small. It divides and dis-integrates us. I am on a mission to expand and re-discover beauty, authentic beauty. I believe beauty is the life of God at work in us and among us. Will you join me in exploring that kind of beauty?

Sign up and follow along on my journey. Let’s re-define beauty. Together.