Loving your body
I remember looking in the mirror and hating what I saw.
My belly has a pouch that doesn’t disappear, however fit I try to be. I often tried to squeeze it underneath some jeans. It felt like it didn’t belong there. Like I had to keep working at it until it finally went away.
When I started my healing journey with food, my relationship with my body instantly became apparent. Why would we nourish and fuel something that we don’t love? I always have been excited to learn about self love & care, probably because it often seemed like it was too far to reach for me..So really working with the judgements around my body, was part of the process.
I would love to share with you one practise that has had a huge impact on my own journey with my body. It’s a simple exercise that you can do anywhere and at any time. I used to do it especially in these moments when I would find myself criticizing what I saw when I looked down or up at the mirror in front of me.
EXERCISE: Connect with what you reject
Whenever we don’t like something about ourselves, we instantly try to keep it hidden. From ourselves, not to have to deal with the judgemental thoughts and from others too. We try to live our lives rejecting that part, even though we still carry it wherever we go.
Truly loving our bodies, starts with fully seeing our bodies. Fully, with all that is your body. This means your freckles, your scars, your stretchmarks, your rolls, your acne, your big ears, your weird shaped feet, your thin hair, your dark circles, your long arm hair, your itchy armpit, your flat ass, your no-thigh-gap area, your belly pouch, your excess skin etc.
1. Becoming familiar with the story: So think about the parts of your body that you don’t like. What is it about them that you don’t like? How do you respond to them right now?
We want to know what is the story we are telling ourselves. Change only happens when we know where we are & where we want to go. So we want to become very familiar with where we are at in this moment.
2. Connect instead of reject: Whenever you now find yourselves judging your body & you recognize it happening in the moment, I want you to connect instead of reject. Connect to that part of you that you don’t like. Look at it, use your senses on to it, touch it. Be present with it.
When I did this exercise with my belly, I realized we can’t reject and connect at the same time. So in these moments when we are connecting to this part, we embrace it as a part of us. And while thoughts came, there was also this gentleness. A feeling of recognizing that this part also had it’s beauty. Beauty is to be found in everything, if we decide to look for it.
Scars, stretchmarks, wrinkles loose skin are the physical writings on our body of our life story. They tell us where we came from and what life brought our way. There are like a map of our journey so far. They let us know that we have wisdom inside of us, because of the life we have lived up until now and that we may share that.
Our ears, our feet, our pouchy belly and rolls that never leave us, these are our unique features. So many things about every human are the same, yet these are the things that make us US! That make you you. We want to be similar enough to feel connected to each other, yet different enough to have our own place in this world. These parts of you are a reminder of your uniqueness and that you may take pride in that!
There is this sacredness to be found in a human body. An understanding that this is what brings us life, what makes us have experiences out into this crazy & interesting world. Let us own our WHOLE bodies. This doesn’t mean we can’t have fitness goals or use make-up; we just want to bake the cake of true self love in the right order. By loving what is & setting goals with this loving intention at heart. To not workout because we need to change something about ourselves to be enough. To not eat a certain way, because our body is not okay like it looks now. But to eat for nourishment, enjoyment, connection. To move because we want to feel energized, healthy and fit.
I would love for you to take this reminder and implement it deep within your heart. Loving ourselves, loving our bodies, means leaving no part behind in the darkness. We want to bring all into the light and connect to it. Adopt it, just like a child, as our own.
