Why Body Checking Isn’t Really About Vanity: A Somatic Perspective on Body Image and Embodiment
Body checking is often misunderstood as vanity or obsession with appearance. But beneath the surface, this behavior is a signpost — a survival strategy pointing to deeper struggles with body dysmorphia, trauma, and disconnection.
In this post, we’ll explore:
What body checking is and why we do it
How it relates to identity, safety, and nervous system regulation
Practices to support embodiment and healing from body image issues
What Is Body Checking?
Body checking refers to repetitive behaviours used to assess or measure one’s body, such as pinching, squeezing, feeling, or looking in mirrors. These actions often focus on areas of perceived “flaws” and can become compulsive.
But here’s the deeper truth:
Body checking isn’t just about size. It’s also about existence.
For many people, especially those with eating disorders or body dysmorphia, changes in the body trigger identity confusion — "If my body changes, am I still me?" Body checking becomes a way to anchor identity in a world that feels unstable or unsafe.
The Link Between Body Checking, Trauma, and Disembodiment
Often, the inability to “be” in one’s body stems from the nervous system’s history of survival adaptations.
When we’ve experienced trauma — particularly attachment trauma or early developmental ruptures — the spaces and people around us may have felt unsafe or dysregulating. Our bodies learned to brace, numb, or disconnect. We move further and further away from our sense of embodiment, which leaves us feeling like we don’t exist.
➡️ In this context, body checking is an unconscious attempt to feel real — to confirm, through physical touch or visual feedback, that we still exist and are “enough” to be here.
You’re Not Afraid of Your Body—Your Body Is Holding Fear
Here’s a reframe:
You’re not afraid of your body.
Your body is holding fear.
Fear that was never discharged.
Fear from moments where the body mobilized to fight, flee, or freeze, and never had the chance to complete that cycle.
When those survival energies stay stuck in the system, the body becomes associated with discomfort or threat. We begin to project fear onto the body itself, compounding body image issues and furthering disconnection.
Healing Through Embodiment and Safety
As we begin to release this trapped survival stress and establish safety through somatic practices, the need to body check naturally fades. Here's what helps:
Proprioceptive and interoceptive practices (e.g., mindful movement, developmental movement patterns, breath awareness)
Connecting to the midline and central channel — the core of your being
Spending time in environments that feel safe and affirming
Co-regulating with others who are committed to healing and embodiment
These tools help us inhabit the body not as an enemy, but as home.
A Message for the Part of You That Still Doesn’t Feel Safe
You exist.
You belong.
You are worthy of being here, just as you are.
Your life force is not too much — it’s not dangerous — it’s sacred.
Your body is not broken.
It’s asking to be met with safety, presence, and love.
As fear softens and your nervous system finds regulation, your body becomes less something to manage or fix, and more a place to live, love, and trust.
May you come home to body.
Photo by Wang Sheeran on Unsplash