Loving your body is a lifelong journey. The world around us is forever changing. Our bodies continue to age and change, and our lives continue to follow their winding, bumpy and beautiful path. So it makes sense that our relationship with our bodies will also fluctuate. There will be times when we feel body-loathing on our body-loving journey.
Here are my five favourite tricks to turn a body-loathing day into a body-loving day.
1) Be a rebel
When I have thoughts of hating my body I use my rebellious nature to my advantage. I really don’t like being told what to do and I don’t do well with feeling like my choices are limited. When it’s my own self-limiting beliefs restricting me from living the life I want, I take my inner-rebel and unleash her wrath on all that shame. “Take that negative self-talk! You can’t tell me what to do! I’m the boss of me!”
2) Body Love Outfits
I love using my body as a canvas for expressing my creativity. For me it’s an important part of feeling free and authentic. When I’m headed out to big events that could trigger body-loathing I choose what I call “Body Love Outfits”. These are ensembles that might be out of my comfort zone, but more importantly reflect my true self. I say to my body, “I love you. I love you so hard that you will rock this outfit. This is a body love outfit!” And then I rock that outfit HARD!
3) Move it and lose it (the loathing that is)
When I move my body in ways that feel nurturing, empowering, and delicious, I forget about all that body-loathing and start enjoying my body, exactly as it is, in the present moment. I stop thinking about what I look like or how my body appears to others. I care only about how good it feels to exist in my body. My favourite movement is dancing. Dancing fills my soul. I feel most free when my body and mind are lost moving to the music.
4) Through my eyes
When I am hating on my body, sometimes it is good for me to remember how I see the world. Where do I see beauty in the world? It shows up in a smile and the warmth of the breeze on my skin. In feeling seen and supported by my loved ones. I fall in love with people for their humour, their incredible mind, and their heart. These things have nothing to do with the way they look. So maybe the way I look isn’t really that important to being able to show up in the world and be loved.
5) Flawed and imperfect
There are days when the positivity can’t drown out the negative thoughts. When I feel like I am not good enough. On those days, I let go. I accept that maybe I can still show up in the world as my flawed and imperfect self and maybe I can let people love me anyway. Maybe I can even let people love me because of those flaws and imperfections.