Belmont hosted a body positive yoga class for students Monday night.
The evening included a conversation with Courtney Grimes, the clinical director of Renewed: Eating Disorder Support.
These conversations concerning body image are especially important to have with college students, since their time in school is such a malleable time, said Grimes.
Grimes shared her own experience with eating disorders and encouraged students not to force self-love, but instead practice self-neutrality.
“In my opinion, if someone hates, hates, hates their body verses loves, loves, loves their body, it’s still polarized,” said Grimes. “It ends up just ping-ponging them back and forth from two extremes of a spectrum.”
If someone loves the way their body looks one day, Grimes asked, how are they going to feel when it changes?
Some students came expecting to hear Grimes preach about self-love but appreciated her slightly different message.
“It was a really cool conversation to have, because it’s not one I hear a lot,” said Joanie Sanders, a senior social work and Spanish double major.
Grimes believes that the way to have a sustainably healthy relationship with your body is to view it in a neutral way and not think about it so much, she said.
After Grimes spoke, students rolled out their mats and practiced some poses.
The body-positive yoga class was one of FitRec’s efforts to promote the idea of the student.
“At FitRec, we don’t talk about getting a six-pack or getting the perfect body, we talk about being well,” said Joe Mankowski, the assistant director of FitRec.