May 26, 2025 • 17 mins
In this 17-minute episode, I explore the deep emotional impact of body comments and the silent shame many of us carry around our appearance.
Drawing from my work as a mental health professional, personal conversations, and my brother’s powerful transformation story, we dive into how societal standards, cultural conditioning, and generational wounds shape our relationship with our bodies.
We unpack the emotional weight of seemingly innocent comments, the lack of body literacy in areas like menstruation and perimenopause, and why healing requires safe, supportive community.
I also share how our upcoming Tuscany retreat is designed to help women reconnect with their bodies, food, and inner wisdom...with love, not judgment.
This episode is an invitation to reclaim your body, rewrite the story, and feel safe in your own skin.
♾ In a fast-paced world like the one we live in, time is one of our most important assets. For a few minutes every episode, I, Tannaz Hosseinpour, will be discussing topics that aim to enhance the quality of your life, by helping you feel empowered to take inspired action on your personal growth journey.
Connect with me for daily insights on:
Facebook
Instagram
Tiktok
To sign up to the upcoming Tuscany retreat from August 18-23, click here
More resources available on : www.minutesongrowth.com
This podcast is for educational purposes only. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.
Drawing from my work as a mental health professional, personal conversations, and my brother’s powerful transformation story, we dive into how societal standards, cultural conditioning, and generational wounds shape our relationship with our bodies.
We unpack the emotional weight of seemingly innocent comments, the lack of body literacy in areas like menstruation and perimenopause, and why healing requires safe, supportive community.
I also share how our upcoming Tuscany retreat is designed to help women reconnect with their bodies, food, and inner wisdom...with love, not judgment.
This episode is an invitation to reclaim your body, rewrite the story, and feel safe in your own skin.
♾ In a fast-paced world like the one we live in, time is one of our most important assets. For a few minutes every episode, I, Tannaz Hosseinpour, will be discussing topics that aim to enhance the quality of your life, by helping you feel empowered to take inspired action on your personal growth journey.
Connect with me for daily insights on:
Tiktok
To sign up to the upcoming Tuscany retreat from August 18-23, click here
More resources available on : www.minutesongrowth.com
This podcast is for educational purposes only. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You're listening to The Minutes on Growth podcast the show
that brings you mindfully curated insights into relationships, spirituality, personal
development and everything in between with your hosts ten as
the same Poor Hi Soul Friends, It's Ana's the same port.
Welcome back to another short solo episode of the Minut's
(00:26):
on Growth Podcasts. Today's conversation is one that's been unfolding
in my sessions and my friendships and in my own
reflections as well, And it's about our bodies more specifically,
the comments that are made about our bodies, how we
feel about our bodies, the shame we often carry because
(00:48):
of those comments, and the deep, often invisible wounds that
they leave behind before we dive deeper. I want to
clarify something. I'm not a nutritionist or a medical doctor.
I don't offer dietary or medical advice. My expertise lies
in mental health, and that's the lens through which I
(01:08):
want to approach this topic. My focus is really to
expand on our relationship with our bodies, with food, with
societal narratives that impact our emotional and psychological well being.
Because research has shown that body image concerns are a
(01:31):
global mental health issue. So a recent study published by
Cambridge University Press highlights that dissatisfaction with one's body appearance,
including shape and weight, is prevalent worldwide and it is
associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes. Now, these
(01:53):
concerns are influenced by cultural contexts, but they are universally
linked to mental health challenges, and that's why it is
so crucial to foster open dialogues about these issues. So
by understanding the psychological aspects of body image and the
societal pressures that are contributing to them, we can begin
(02:17):
to heal and support one another. Remember, it's not about
fitting into a mold, but about embracing and honoring our
unique selves. As cliche as that sounds, so let's begin now.
For many women, our bodies have been a topic of
conversation since childhood. We grew up watching perhaps our mothers
(02:45):
criticized their bodies. Our grandmothers might have done the same,
and somewhere along the line we learned that our bodies
and the way we look we're always up for discussion.
While you've lost weight, or oh my god, god you've
gained weight, or your arms look so big, or babes
that outfit is too tight on you. You shouldn't be
(03:06):
wearing that with your body type. And for the longest time,
these comments weren't question, It was normalized. It was almost
expected that our bodies were available for commentary and that
we should either take it as a compliment or see
it as motivation. Bye, it's twenty twenty five. Isn't it
(03:31):
time for us to kind of change the narrative, for
us to set a new normal that our bodies are
not public property to be reviewed or critique. And sometimes
even the seemingly innocent comments can hit wounds that we
have carried for decades. And I've had conversations with my
(03:54):
fiance about this too, and I kind of explained it
to him in this way of you didn't go to
school in here, bro, your hips look bigger today. It
just simply isn't something that's been up for discussion for
most men. And I say most and not all, because
you know, I saw firsthand how my brother was subject
(04:15):
to these comments growing up. And I'll discuss it in
a bit, but here's my point. Because many haven't had
these experiences, they don't realize that, for example, when a
male partner makes a comment about our body about their
partner's body. Even with good intentions, it often lands in
(04:37):
a wound that's been conditioned into us since we were girls.
That's why we feel triggered. I mean not because of
necessarily what is said in that moment, but because of
everything that came before it, the years of scrutiny, the
beauty industry constantly telling us we're not good enough, we're
(05:00):
never enough, the social media filters, the shifting trends. So
one minutes it's like this heroin chic, the next it's
super curvy, and so many of us begin to feel
like our worth is constantly tied to whether or not
we fit whatever mold is trending at that moment, and
(05:22):
as if her body is like a fashion statement that
needs to be constantly adjusted. But it goes deeper than
body image. I mean, think about it. For the longest time,
I know that was the case for me. We didn't
even consider our menstrual cycles when it came to fitness
(05:44):
or nutrition. I'm only learning about this now, of how
I need to move my body and feed my body
during different phases of my cycle. And most of the
research that has been done in health and wellness, it
was done on men, and they just simply applied it
(06:05):
to women without accounting for our unique biology. I recently
read a fascinating study showing that women actually need more
sleep than men. But up until recently, that was never
part of the conversation. It was just assumed that if
this is what is good for men, then it's good
for women too. Our bodies weren't factor in. We were
(06:28):
just kind of expected to perform and operate like them.
And you know, one thing I deeply appreciate something I
rarely saw growing up in the Middle East and actually
in North America too, was my dad's policy at work.
(06:50):
So bless my dad. He's always been so vocal about menstruation,
and he was like the second person I told when
I first got my period, and he had such a
positive response to it. He honored me, he celebrated me,
He took me to the supermarket. It was such a
lovely experience, and I think that was such a healing
(07:12):
moment for not only me, but for all the generations
that came before me in my lineage. But the policy
that I want to honor, and if there's any business
owners listening to this, I highly recommend implementing something similar
is that he created space for women to take the
(07:34):
first day of their psycho log, no questions ask It
wasn't seen as a weakness. It was simply him acknowledging biology,
honoring the body, and creating space for rest. And yet
for so many of the women I work with, that
kind of openness around menstruation has been completely absent from
(07:57):
their homes and their lives. They tell me they never
talked about it, that when they first got their period,
it was filled with shame and secrecy and embarrassment. That
when their bodies began to change during puberty, you know,
developing breast, gaining curves, they felt that they had to
hide it and that shame. It doesn't just vanish. It
(08:21):
sits quietly in the background, influencing our relationship with our bodies.
And it resurfaces again leader during premenopause and menopause. And
here's the thing, we don't talk about that enough either.
Pre menopause especially is something I hear so little about,
(08:41):
even though it affects our mood, sleep, energy, hormones, weight, relationships,
nervous system. We're simply not educated enough about it. We're
not prepared for it, and most of the time. The
men in our lives don't know about it either, which
makes it even harder to ask for support when we
don't even have the language for what we are experiencing.
(09:04):
And this is why these conversations matter. This is why
body literacy matters, because when we're informed, we stop feeling
like we're broken, we stop fighting biology, we start working
with our bodies instead of against them. So here's what
I want us to begin shifting. The body was never
(09:26):
the problem. The story we inherited about our bodies is,
and as I mentioned, shame. It is a heavy story.
We cannot shame ourselves into changing, we cannot judge ourselves
into love. But we can begin to reclaim, to rewrite
the narrative, to come home to the body, not to
(09:48):
control it, but to honor it. And I want to
share an example of this reclamation from someone very close
to me that I mentioned earlier, or my brother. He
wants weight two hundred and twenty kilos. He had his
fair share of getting bullied and teased and you know,
(10:11):
comments thrown at him. Doctors labeled him as abest. He
was on thyroid medication, cholesterol medication, he was only nineteen,
and every specialist told him, you need surgery. This is
impossible to do naturally. You'll never make it without medical intervention.
And I mean he had tried. He had tried for
(10:32):
years to lose weight through like yo yo diets, signing
up to different games, like stopping after a few sessions.
But after the law, the last doctor appointment where the
doctor was like adamant on scheduling him and for surgery,
I remember him saying something really powerful, just give me
(10:52):
one last chance to try and connect with my body.
Such a profound statement. And try he did. He embarked
on the most profound, sustainable journey I have ever seen,
and I think it had a lot to do with
his intention. It no longer was to please my mom,
(11:16):
who was worried about him. It was no longer him
trying to fit into a certain mold, to look like
someone you know, to look like people he saw on
social media. But the way he phrased it showed me
that it was genuinely to reconnect with his body, to
reconnect with the parts of himself that he had shamed
(11:39):
and suppressed over the years. You know, he didn't start himself.
He didn't take on pick even though it was available
to him for free, because in Canada under twenty five
within a certain income range, medication is free and he
already had the support of his specialists for it. But
(12:00):
he said, let me try to reconnect with my body
in a natural way. And he took baby steps. He
really took baby steps and changing his relationship with his body,
and he began treating his body. This is his own words, verbatim,
(12:20):
like a temple. This is a guy who went from
ordering Uber eats three times a day, including for breakfast,
to cooking. He was cooking real food like protein, veggies, rice.
He started to nourish his body. He started to move
his body. But and here's the big bod, not as
(12:42):
a form of punishment but a celebration. He kept saying,
kind of, I want to feel strong, I want to
feel alive in this body. And so over two years
he went from two twenty to ninety kilos. His liver healed,
he was taken off all the medication that he was given.
(13:07):
But most importantly, he became someone who actually felt connected
to his body, to the body that he was living in.
So it's not a weight loss story. This is the
story of reclaiming autonomy an agency over self, over one's
(13:30):
own body, over one's own story, and we don't do
this kind of healing in isolation. I really think we
need safe spaces for this. I remember at our Mikona's
for Trade, one of the most most beautiful transformations that
we witnessed was one of our participants healing slowly starting
(13:54):
to heal her relationship with food. And it wasn't because
she was given a meal plan or like, but because
in those moments she felt seen, she felt heard, she
felt supported. And when you were surrounded by sisterhood and
not comparison, you soften, You start to release the shame,
(14:17):
you start to reclaim your body not as an enemy,
but as an ally. And it's the same by the
way for men too, if they're surrounded by this brotherhood,
by this community, by the sense of belongingness becomes a medium,
(14:38):
a vessel for healing. And that's why usually when you
know we have in person programs, for example our upcoming
Tuscany retreat in August, we intentionally weaven healing around our bodies,
around food, our feminine rhythms. So whether it's like pizza
and pass and making classes where we're like engaging with
(15:01):
food joyfully and mindfully, or in our shared meals where
we hold hands and bless our food and say a
little prayer and eat together. We are healing the layers,
the layers the relationship with food, with body, image, with community.
(15:21):
And there's actual research, by the way that shows that
eating with loved ones improves digestion, reduces stress, and increases
overall satisfaction with meals. So it's not just emotional, it's physiological.
So here's my invitation to you today. You are allowed
(15:42):
to be at peace in your body. You are allowed
to move it, to love it, to feed it, to
honor it without apology or explanation. You are allowed to
speak up when someone crosses a boundary, and you are
allowed to rewrite the narrative. And if you're in partnership,
(16:04):
I highly recommend sharing this episode with your partner. Help
them understand that it isn't about that one comment, but
about everything that came before it, and together we can
start creating relationships and communities where our bodies are respected, honored,
(16:27):
not reviewed, where healing is possible, where we can learn
to accept love, honor, and most importantly, feel safe in
the skin that we're in. I believe that we all
(16:51):
deserve to feel the safety. If this episode resonated with you,
I'd love for you to share it with a friend,
to leave a quick review, and don't forget to check
the show notes for the upcoming Tuscany retreat details. Until
next time, please be gentle with your body. It is
(17:14):
showing up for you and we need to honor it
to the best of our ability speak. So thank you
for joining us this week on Minutes on Growth. If
you enjoyed today's episode, and make sure you never miss
a show by clicking the subscribe button now.
You're listening to The Minutes on Growth podcast the show
that brings you mindfully curated insights into relationships, spirituality, personal
development and everything in between with your hosts ten as
the same Poor Hi Soul Friends, It's Ana's the same port.
Welcome back to another short solo episode of the Minut's
(00:26):
on Growth Podcasts. Today's conversation is one that's been unfolding
in my sessions and my friendships and in my own
reflections as well, And it's about our bodies more specifically,
the comments that are made about our bodies, how we
feel about our bodies, the shame we often carry because
(00:48):
of those comments, and the deep, often invisible wounds that
they leave behind before we dive deeper. I want to
clarify something. I'm not a nutritionist or a medical doctor.
I don't offer dietary or medical advice. My expertise lies
in mental health, and that's the lens through which I
(01:08):
want to approach this topic. My focus is really to
expand on our relationship with our bodies, with food, with
societal narratives that impact our emotional and psychological well being.
Because research has shown that body image concerns are a
(01:31):
global mental health issue. So a recent study published by
Cambridge University Press highlights that dissatisfaction with one's body appearance,
including shape and weight, is prevalent worldwide and it is
associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes. Now, these
(01:53):
concerns are influenced by cultural contexts, but they are universally
linked to mental health challenges, and that's why it is
so crucial to foster open dialogues about these issues. So
by understanding the psychological aspects of body image and the
societal pressures that are contributing to them, we can begin
(02:17):
to heal and support one another. Remember, it's not about
fitting into a mold, but about embracing and honoring our
unique selves. As cliche as that sounds, so let's begin now.
For many women, our bodies have been a topic of
conversation since childhood. We grew up watching perhaps our mothers
(02:45):
criticized their bodies. Our grandmothers might have done the same,
and somewhere along the line we learned that our bodies
and the way we look we're always up for discussion.
While you've lost weight, or oh my god, god you've
gained weight, or your arms look so big, or babes
that outfit is too tight on you. You shouldn't be
(03:06):
wearing that with your body type. And for the longest time,
these comments weren't question, It was normalized. It was almost
expected that our bodies were available for commentary and that
we should either take it as a compliment or see
it as motivation. Bye, it's twenty twenty five. Isn't it
(03:31):
time for us to kind of change the narrative, for
us to set a new normal that our bodies are
not public property to be reviewed or critique. And sometimes
even the seemingly innocent comments can hit wounds that we
have carried for decades. And I've had conversations with my
(03:54):
fiance about this too, and I kind of explained it
to him in this way of you didn't go to
school in here, bro, your hips look bigger today. It
just simply isn't something that's been up for discussion for
most men. And I say most and not all, because
you know, I saw firsthand how my brother was subject
(04:15):
to these comments growing up. And I'll discuss it in
a bit, but here's my point. Because many haven't had
these experiences, they don't realize that, for example, when a
male partner makes a comment about our body about their
partner's body. Even with good intentions, it often lands in
(04:37):
a wound that's been conditioned into us since we were girls.
That's why we feel triggered. I mean not because of
necessarily what is said in that moment, but because of
everything that came before it, the years of scrutiny, the
beauty industry constantly telling us we're not good enough, we're
(05:00):
never enough, the social media filters, the shifting trends. So
one minutes it's like this heroin chic, the next it's
super curvy, and so many of us begin to feel
like our worth is constantly tied to whether or not
we fit whatever mold is trending at that moment, and
(05:22):
as if her body is like a fashion statement that
needs to be constantly adjusted. But it goes deeper than
body image. I mean, think about it. For the longest time,
I know that was the case for me. We didn't
even consider our menstrual cycles when it came to fitness
(05:44):
or nutrition. I'm only learning about this now, of how
I need to move my body and feed my body
during different phases of my cycle. And most of the
research that has been done in health and wellness, it
was done on men, and they just simply applied it
(06:05):
to women without accounting for our unique biology. I recently
read a fascinating study showing that women actually need more
sleep than men. But up until recently, that was never
part of the conversation. It was just assumed that if
this is what is good for men, then it's good
for women too. Our bodies weren't factor in. We were
(06:28):
just kind of expected to perform and operate like them.
And you know, one thing I deeply appreciate something I
rarely saw growing up in the Middle East and actually
in North America too, was my dad's policy at work.
(06:50):
So bless my dad. He's always been so vocal about menstruation,
and he was like the second person I told when
I first got my period, and he had such a
positive response to it. He honored me, he celebrated me,
He took me to the supermarket. It was such a
lovely experience, and I think that was such a healing
(07:12):
moment for not only me, but for all the generations
that came before me in my lineage. But the policy
that I want to honor, and if there's any business
owners listening to this, I highly recommend implementing something similar
is that he created space for women to take the
(07:34):
first day of their psycho log, no questions ask It
wasn't seen as a weakness. It was simply him acknowledging biology,
honoring the body, and creating space for rest. And yet
for so many of the women I work with, that
kind of openness around menstruation has been completely absent from
(07:57):
their homes and their lives. They tell me they never
talked about it, that when they first got their period,
it was filled with shame and secrecy and embarrassment. That
when their bodies began to change during puberty, you know,
developing breast, gaining curves, they felt that they had to
hide it and that shame. It doesn't just vanish. It
(08:21):
sits quietly in the background, influencing our relationship with our bodies.
And it resurfaces again leader during premenopause and menopause. And
here's the thing, we don't talk about that enough either.
Pre menopause especially is something I hear so little about,
(08:41):
even though it affects our mood, sleep, energy, hormones, weight, relationships,
nervous system. We're simply not educated enough about it. We're
not prepared for it, and most of the time. The
men in our lives don't know about it either, which
makes it even harder to ask for support when we
don't even have the language for what we are experiencing.
(09:04):
And this is why these conversations matter. This is why
body literacy matters, because when we're informed, we stop feeling
like we're broken, we stop fighting biology, we start working
with our bodies instead of against them. So here's what
I want us to begin shifting. The body was never
(09:26):
the problem. The story we inherited about our bodies is,
and as I mentioned, shame. It is a heavy story.
We cannot shame ourselves into changing, we cannot judge ourselves
into love. But we can begin to reclaim, to rewrite
the narrative, to come home to the body, not to
(09:48):
control it, but to honor it. And I want to
share an example of this reclamation from someone very close
to me that I mentioned earlier, or my brother. He
wants weight two hundred and twenty kilos. He had his
fair share of getting bullied and teased and you know,
(10:11):
comments thrown at him. Doctors labeled him as abest. He
was on thyroid medication, cholesterol medication, he was only nineteen,
and every specialist told him, you need surgery. This is
impossible to do naturally. You'll never make it without medical intervention.
And I mean he had tried. He had tried for
(10:32):
years to lose weight through like yo yo diets, signing
up to different games, like stopping after a few sessions.
But after the law, the last doctor appointment where the
doctor was like adamant on scheduling him and for surgery,
I remember him saying something really powerful, just give me
(10:52):
one last chance to try and connect with my body.
Such a profound statement. And try he did. He embarked
on the most profound, sustainable journey I have ever seen,
and I think it had a lot to do with
his intention. It no longer was to please my mom,
(11:16):
who was worried about him. It was no longer him
trying to fit into a certain mold, to look like
someone you know, to look like people he saw on
social media. But the way he phrased it showed me
that it was genuinely to reconnect with his body, to
reconnect with the parts of himself that he had shamed
(11:39):
and suppressed over the years. You know, he didn't start himself.
He didn't take on pick even though it was available
to him for free, because in Canada under twenty five
within a certain income range, medication is free and he
already had the support of his specialists for it. But
(12:00):
he said, let me try to reconnect with my body
in a natural way. And he took baby steps. He
really took baby steps and changing his relationship with his body,
and he began treating his body. This is his own words, verbatim,
(12:20):
like a temple. This is a guy who went from
ordering Uber eats three times a day, including for breakfast,
to cooking. He was cooking real food like protein, veggies, rice.
He started to nourish his body. He started to move
his body. But and here's the big bod, not as
(12:42):
a form of punishment but a celebration. He kept saying,
kind of, I want to feel strong, I want to
feel alive in this body. And so over two years
he went from two twenty to ninety kilos. His liver healed,
he was taken off all the medication that he was given.
(13:07):
But most importantly, he became someone who actually felt connected
to his body, to the body that he was living in.
So it's not a weight loss story. This is the
story of reclaiming autonomy an agency over self, over one's
(13:30):
own body, over one's own story, and we don't do
this kind of healing in isolation. I really think we
need safe spaces for this. I remember at our Mikona's
for Trade, one of the most most beautiful transformations that
we witnessed was one of our participants healing slowly starting
(13:54):
to heal her relationship with food. And it wasn't because
she was given a meal plan or like, but because
in those moments she felt seen, she felt heard, she
felt supported. And when you were surrounded by sisterhood and
not comparison, you soften, You start to release the shame,
(14:17):
you start to reclaim your body not as an enemy,
but as an ally. And it's the same by the
way for men too, if they're surrounded by this brotherhood,
by this community, by the sense of belongingness becomes a medium,
(14:38):
a vessel for healing. And that's why usually when you
know we have in person programs, for example our upcoming
Tuscany retreat in August, we intentionally weaven healing around our bodies,
around food, our feminine rhythms. So whether it's like pizza
and pass and making classes where we're like engaging with
(15:01):
food joyfully and mindfully, or in our shared meals where
we hold hands and bless our food and say a
little prayer and eat together. We are healing the layers,
the layers the relationship with food, with body, image, with community.
(15:21):
And there's actual research, by the way that shows that
eating with loved ones improves digestion, reduces stress, and increases
overall satisfaction with meals. So it's not just emotional, it's physiological.
So here's my invitation to you today. You are allowed
(15:42):
to be at peace in your body. You are allowed
to move it, to love it, to feed it, to
honor it without apology or explanation. You are allowed to
speak up when someone crosses a boundary, and you are
allowed to rewrite the narrative. And if you're in partnership,
(16:04):
I highly recommend sharing this episode with your partner. Help
them understand that it isn't about that one comment, but
about everything that came before it, and together we can
start creating relationships and communities where our bodies are respected, honored,
(16:27):
not reviewed, where healing is possible, where we can learn
to accept love, honor, and most importantly, feel safe in
the skin that we're in. I believe that we all
(16:51):
deserve to feel the safety. If this episode resonated with you,
I'd love for you to share it with a friend,
to leave a quick review, and don't forget to check
the show notes for the upcoming Tuscany retreat details. Until
next time, please be gentle with your body. It is
(17:14):
showing up for you and we need to honor it
to the best of our ability speak. So thank you
for joining us this week on Minutes on Growth. If
you enjoyed today's episode, and make sure you never miss
a show by clicking the subscribe button now.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!