Bodies can be really scary and really gross. On top of that, we often learn early on that we have to keep the challenges of our bodies to ourselves, and we can become isolated in experiences that are painful and terrifying. In that way, experiences of agony and fear can be compounded by feelings of humiliation, disconnection, and abandonment. These feelings of body shame come in many different forms, find us over the course of a lifetime, and lurk around nearly every corner of the human experience. Before we know much about why we're even freaked out by ourselves, intense feelings about our bodies can creep over us like a heavy, opaque fog with little sense of how to find a clear path back out of our own discomfited psyches. Talking about bodies openly can start to bend this collective narrative and isolating inner experience back toward care, belonging, and shared good humor about our corporeal existence. We can take small steps in ways that feel manageable and ok for us personally and that help us connect interpersonally about our bodies. What's one thing you want people to know right now about your body?
[image description: A frowning heart sits in the driver's seat of a car looking out at the viewer. Text reads, "I once pooped my pants in the car trying to make it to my apartment."]
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