Area 3 · The Strength

The Strength List

Everything your body has carried you through. Written down. Witnessed.

5 min read · Writing exercise

You've spent a lot of time thinking about what's wrong with your body. What it can't do. What it looks like. What it should be. How it's failed you.

This exercise asks a different question.

What has your body done for you?

Not your mind — your mind gets plenty of credit. Your body. The physical vessel that got you here. The legs that walked out. The arms that held your children. The back that bent under the weight and didn't break. The lungs that kept breathing when you forgot to tell them to.

We don't do this enough. We pick apart what's wrong and never stop to inventory what's extraordinary. This exercise corrects that.

What counts

Everything counts. The dramatic and the mundane. The athletic and the invisible. Strength isn't just heavy lifting — it's showing up in a body that wanted to shut down, day after day, and still managing to live.

Here are some examples. Not to copy — to unlock. Let these jog memories of your own.

—

My body grew a human being. It made bones and blood and a heartbeat from nothing.

—

My legs carried me out of a house I never thought I'd leave.

—

My arms held my children while I was falling apart inside, and they never felt me shake.

—

My body survived surgery and healed itself while I slept.

—

My hands cooked a thousand dinners when I had nothing left to give.

—

My voice said the hardest words I've ever spoken and didn't crack.

—

My body got out of bed on the morning I thought I couldn't.

—

My lungs kept breathing through panic attacks that felt like dying.

—

My feet walked into a solicitor's office, a courtroom, a new flat — places I'd never been brave enough to enter.

—

My body held grief for months without breaking. It bent. It ached. But it held.

You are walking around in a body
that has done extraordinary things.
It's time you told it so.

Your turn

Write your Strength List. There are no rules except one: everything you write must be about your body — what it did, what it survived, what it carried. Not what it looked like. Not what it weighed. What it did.

If you're stuck, these prompts will help you start.

Prompt 1 — Survival

What has your body survived?

My body got me through __________ when my mind had already given up.

My body healed from __________ without me ever thanking it.

My body kept going on the day when __________.

Prompt 2 — Everyday strength

What has your body done that you never gave it credit for?

My hands have __________ a thousand times without complaint.

My feet have carried me to __________ when I was terrified.

My body wakes up every morning and __________ before I even think to ask.

Prompt 3 — Love

What has your body given to the people you love?

My body held __________ when they needed me most.

My arms have __________ more times than I can count.

My body made a home for __________ before they had one of their own.

Prompt 4 — The brave things

Where has your body taken you that required courage?

My body walked into __________ when every part of me wanted to run.

My voice spoke up about __________ even though it was shaking.

My body stood its ground when __________.

· · ·

My Strength List

Keep going

You don't have to write this all in one sitting. Come back to it. Add to it. When something hard happens and your body gets you through it — add that too. This list is living proof that you are stronger than you think.

What to do with your list

Read it back to yourself. Out loud, if you can. Let the words land in your body — not just your mind. Let your body hear what it's done.

Then, when the old voice comes — the one that says you're not enough, your body has failed you, you should be further along by now — you have something concrete to answer with. Not an affirmation borrowed from someone else. A list, written in your own hand, of everything your body has actually done.

Evidence is stronger than encouragement.

Some women pin their list to the mirror. Some keep it in their phone and read it on hard mornings. Some share one item with someone they trust — and the telling makes it real.

However you keep it, let it remind you: the body you've been criticising is the same body that carried you through the hardest chapter of your life. It didn't fail you. It never did.

You don't live in a body that needs fixing.
You live in a body that has already proved its strength.
This list is the evidence.

With admiration for every body reading this,

Lada

Founder, Inner Rooms

💬

Having trouble getting started? Tell me one thing your body has done for you — just one — and I'll help you unlock more. Sometimes it takes someone else saying "that counts" before you believe it.

Talk to Alma

← Taking Up Space The Permission →