willow

“This is your life. It’s yours to live or let slip away. We can’t tell you what to do, because the only person you ultimately have to answer to is yourself. No one but you experiences your pain and joy, and no one but you can take responsibility for your actions and inactions. With every choice you make, you alter your trajectory, and over time, these seemingly inconsequential decisions make up the fabric of your life. What is the life you want to create for yourself?”
― Clarissa W. Ong, The Anxious Perfectionist: How to Manage Perfectionism-Driven Anxiety Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

“you always have the choice of values over fear—whether or not it’s obvious or feels possible in the moment.”
― Clarissa W. Ong, The Anxious Perfectionist: How to Manage Perfectionism-Driven Anxiety Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

“The point of the BoPo movement isn’t necessarily for everyone to simply just “love” their bodies or feel positively about them, but rather, to take a stance against social norms and pressures of what society says beauty “should” be by bringing adequate representation to people of color, people of different ethnicities, people from LGBTQIA+ communities, older adults, and those with disabilities.44 But rather than bringing adequate representation and diversity to society’s ideal body standards, what has unfortunately happened is that many thin, fit, White, and conventionally attractive people, specifically cisgender White women, have taken its message to simply be “love yourself despite your ‘imperfections.’” They’ve taken something that wasn’t meant for them to be used to further validate their own beauty standards.”
― Jamie Mills, The Easy Way Out: Why Bariatrics Isn't Cheating Obesity, It's Treating It

“Knowing the difference between top down and bottom up regulation is central for understanding and treating traumatic stress. Top-down regulation involves strengthening the capacity of the watchtower to monitor your body’s sensations. Mindfulness meditation and yoga can help with this. Bottom-up regulation involves recalibrating the autonomic nervous system, (which, as we have seen, originates in the brain stem). We can access the ANS through breath, movement, or touch. Breathing is one of the few body functions under both conscious and autonomic control. In part 5 of this book we’ll explore specific techniques for increasing both top-down and bottom-up regulation.”
― Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma