114: Radical Self Love

I sat down on a gorgeous August afternoon to record this episode about a book I had delayed reading until recently. And this book is “The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-love” by Sonya Renee Taylor. I had it on my bookshelf. I just didn’t read it. I think the reason I didn’t is because Sonya talks about something called body terrorism and the term put me off. But she describes body terrorism as just the systems and structures that are in place in society to maintain the marginalization of people. So I read it, as I said, and the way she confronts fat-shaming and implicit bias has given me a lot to think about. I wouldn’t say Sonya takes a gentle approach, she’s direct, but this book has resonated with me now and I want to talk about it.

Sonya talks about systemic sizeism in culture and systemic discrimination but she also really emphasizes the fact that a lot of the work in addressing this has to start with ourselves. That’s not necessarily a fun thing to read, you know? But Sonya uses what she calls “radical self-love”, which goes way beyond self-compassion or loving your body, to take us into a place where we intuitively understand how valuable and worthy we are. We dismantle the implicit bias within ourselves and turn it around by fundamentally understanding our worth. So I’m exploring the four pillars that Sonya talks about that help bring us to a place of radical self-love. I’m going to talk about those four pillars - taking out the toxic, mind matters, unapologetic action, and collective compassion - and what it looks like to actually put these into action in daily life. I hope you find this as challenging and beautiful as I did.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• “The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-love” by Sonya Renee Taylor

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