Before I became a body image coach, I worked for a fancy pants golf club. One of the things I would do while on hold for telephone calls was build my rubber band ball. I’d had a rubber band ball at my previous job and it simply didn’t feel right to not have one. Something about them has always been sort of fun and curious for me.
I started it from a huge pile of various sized and colored rubber bands that were gifted to me with my desk. And I don’t know if you’ve ever made one but it is sort of like a puzzle.
In the beginning, they can be a bit frustrating. And sometimes, it seems easier to just go buy one at the local office supply store.
You start with just pile of rubber bands. Sorting through the pile and finding just the right ones to start the ball is essential. You need to find ones that will not unwind and pop off easily. Otherwise, you end up with an unraveling mess all over the floor.
And, this is a process you repeat over and over and over again until you get it just right.
But, with patience, and plenty of time on hold, the semblance of an actual ball begins to form and the process starts to become a bit more natural. You start to notice which rubber bands tend to pop off easily, which ones will stay with a little coaxing and which ones are a perfect fit at the perfect time.
Before you know it, making the ball actually becomes easy. You start to pick up the pace and before you know it, it starts to resemble an actual ball.
Nice work, you think to yourself, while the elevator music plays in your ear.
Even still, there are times when you choose a rubber band that immediately pops off and flies across the room.
But you persevere.
You can tell that if you keep going, you will soon have a shining example of a rubber band ball that Staples would be proud to put into their catalog.
At this point, you are a like a rubber band ball making pro.
I mean, look at this fucking thing.
So, colorful, and round and bouncy. And YOU made it.
And so, you keep on going.
Soon, you have a ball that is about the size of a golf ball. At this point, you begin to carefully choose which rubber band will come next and you know, without even thinking, which direction to apply the colorful, springy circle of rubber.
Eventually, the ball becomes the size of a baseball as well as the envy of the entire office. Some folks might even go so far as to steal your ball and try to hide it from you. They know how proud you are of the work you’ve accomplished and, now, they want the same thing without doing all that work.
But, you tell them to fuck off and take your ball back.
It’s yours.
And you created it from a mess hidden in your desk drawer into something you proudly display for all the world to see.
Transforming your body hatred into deep and lasting love is just like that.
Yep.
Just like that.
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