Emily Capelli, MS
Emily Capelli, MS
Body Positive Therapist

Check out my posts on Instagram
@EmilyCapelliMS

A couple of years ago, I had a therapist who told me, "If you want one aspect of another person's life, you have to take all of their life. You can't cherry-pick what traits you want." . This idea stopped me in my tracks, and even now I think about this whenever I compare myself to another person. . Our lives are made up of decisions that have accumulated throughout a lifetime. Although someone might have something you want, you have no idea what it took to get there, why they got there, and how they deal with their lives day-to-day. . If you knew the backstory, you might not want what they have. . In those moments when I compare, I try to remind myself of the good things in my life, too. . So, someone has more money than me. So what! I enjoy my career. I make people's lives better every day. And I get to take mid-day naps. . So, someone has more followers than me. So what! My followers are passionate, smart, kind, and artistic. Those are my ideal followers, and sometimes they take longer to find me. . So, someone got married before me. So what! Who knows if I even want to get married? That's just a social script that was programmed into me by our culture. . So, someone's body is smaller than mine. So what! I hope they are happy. I hope they love themselves. And I hope they realize they are more than just their bodies.
Sandtray therapy, not to be confused with Sandplay therapy, is such a wonderful tool that I love using with my clients. . Although it looks like toys in a sandbox, it is so much more. I often use it when clients are stuck on an issue when cognitively processing something by talking is not getting us anywhere. . Part of why it works is it allows clients to speak through metaphors and symbols rather than rational, linear thought. Sometimes we can get in the way of our understanding, and the sandtray helps us to find meaning in chaos. . After a client creates a sandtray, we interpret it as we would in a dream. In this picture above, I separated my life into three different sections to get some clarity on a few things. It helped, and I loved playing in the sand. . Have you ever done any creative therapies? How have they worked? Let me know in the comments.
What if every food had its place? . What if we stopped putting value words on food? . What if we trusted that our bodies know what we need? . And if we could change our relationship with food, such an important relationship in our lives, what else could we change? . What would happen if we gave ourselves permission to eat? . Permission to live? . Would we "let ourselves go"? . YES. . Let's all let ourselves go.