Can Being in Nature Heal our Body Image?

I’m currently in remote Western Australia, 6457km from home.

We’re doing a mini lap in our new caravan, our old 4WD, a newly 40yr old hot husband, 2 human kiddos and a delightful Kelpie. It’s been completely bananas and still feeling a bit surreal to be honest.

We have been on the road now for 3 (out of 9) weeks and I feel like we are all adjusting to our new normal. Pre teen kiddos sharing the back seat has been a steady mix of squabble and joy. The delightful Kelpie falls asleep as soon as the engine is warm and is then ready to explore or just hang out wherever we land. Life on the road has been challenging and magical and I have lost my shit with my humans more times than I would like to admit.

I had these visions of Brady Bunch like family meals and long walks on the beach, slow mornings and stargazing together as a family unit and sure we have had a few of those moments, but really we are just navigating our same old family dynamics in a 16 foot house on wheels.

I still feel guilty for the amount of screen time and lack of fresh produce they are having each day.

In a rare moment of peace, I was sitting alone in Joffre Gorge in Karijini National Park. Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places I have been. My feet red from the iron rich red dirt, my face dry from the sun and my soul calm and happy. It’s the first time I had been on my own since we set off a few weeks back.

Here I am, tiny little Kate (and anyone who knows me, knows there’s nothing tiny about me) sitting inside one of the many breathtaking gorges in this neck of the woods. The red, black, blue and plum coloured rocks around me a meer 2.5 BILLION years old. These rocks saw the start and the end of dinosaurs among many other things!

Don’t know about you, but whenever I am faced with the majestic and awe inspiring force of nature, it forces things into perspective. Like major perspective and I can’t help but remember not to sweat the small stuff.

All those years of believing the words that flowed from the fat shaming bullies, and the shame seeds planted by medical weight stigma both personally and what I leanred professionally. Someone has always had an opinion about my body but I finally understand, it’s only ever been mine that really matters.

As I sat there quietly, allowing whatever thoughts wanted to flow through in the moment, and thinking of all the things my body does to be grateful for, I reflected on a client session I’d had a few hours earlier.

This beautiful client first came to see me for support with her yo-yo dieting and body image battle she had been fighting for almost 3 decades. She exploded in excitement telling me about an experience she had with her body for the first time in her 38 years.

She said to me, "I was on the beach, in my swimming costume (first time since her eldest was born 9 years ago) and I was totally and completely present with my babies. We were jumping over waves and sitting down building sandcastles. I was running along the sand with them, bits jiggling around and for the first time ever, I had zero fucks to give about what others thought about how I looked. For the first time ever I realised, this body is for me to make memories with my babies and to allow me to live. It was like a thousand kilos had been lifted off my shoulders and it all kinda just fell into place."

The only thing that had changed with her weight, shape or size was the way she related to the noise she had about it. You see she had the noise for the first time, the noise didn’t have her.

It still blows my mind just how different life feels when we are no longer at war with our body and our body image. When we are able to wear the swimmers and the shorts and the sleeveless tops without getting tied up in knots about what others will think. When we actively reject diet culture and it’s lies about what it means to be healthy. For me and my clients, it allows us to think of how to be nourished, rather than how to be thin.

As I sat there thanking the universe for sharing its magic with me in Joffre Gorge, I had an overwhelming feeling of Kate, this goes both ways. The gratitude and awe I hold for this majestic country allows me to be grateful and in awe of my own body and care for her in a way that allows me to be able to engage in life.

Nature has never strived to fit in to make others happy. She’s never done what others tell her she should. Nature has zero fucks to give about what you think of her. She evolves and grows and adapts to her world. In her time and on her terms.

I personally have always felt most at peace in nature and I wonder if that’s why.

I love the way nature is unpredictable and dangerous while simultaneously being peaceful and comforting.

I love that the Australian bush needs to be burnt down, almost to a crisp to allow it to regenerate and grow. Talk about dark days.

I love that all storms will pass and then return, and trying to control the weather or the tides is simply impossible no matter how hard we try.

I love that tree roots are interwoven in secret underground community, sharing resources and holding each other up. You my darling are part of my underground community, being here and wanting to start a new dialogue about food and bodies and health. I appreciate you more than you know!

As I sat there in the magnificent gorge it reminded me just how important our body image noise is. It can be so loud and feel so consuming and REALLY important when it has us. Then somehow it feels almost laughable when we have it.

How can we all be so consumed with the way we look when there are gorges and mountains and oceans and rivers to explore. When did we all blindly drink the diet culture kool aid handed to us that has convinced us our incredible, hard working, resilient bodies were wrong? Those same bodies that climb and jump and dance and hug. The same diet culture that continues to body shame us for being too big, or too small or too muscly or not enough.

So darling human, if you want to feel better in your body, may I suggest you get out there, in your body. Your today body. Your body is for you to live your one crazy beautiful life. Be it in our own backyard with the sun on your skin and the grass at your feet. Ask the sun what’s best for your health. Watch the stars and ask them what they think about your cellulite. Gift yourself a mental health day and go to the beach or the bush or a park and just be.

Be with your body, in your body, just as she is today. There is so much magic in you and around you beautiful human, you just need to practice seeing it.