THE SECRET TO CHANGING BODY HATE TO LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE?
HINT: It’s not complicated.
It’s bringing love and acceptance to your body.
“Well that’s way easier said than done,” scoffs the reader.
Stay with me!
So often we hate on ourselves, we nitpick everything, we judge our bodies and our looks by what we see in the magazines and we can’t bear to look at photos of ourselves.
(HAVE BEEN THERE!)
But what if I told you that’s actually a choice and a pattern that you can SHIFT?
It’s not your fault that you feel that way, first of all. The conditioning around this shit is POWERFUL and designed to keep us striving for unattainable standards. Our self-hate fuels entire industries (see also: The Patriarchy).
But the way to start undoing this conditioning is to START. And it is so simple.
HERE IS MY THREE STEP METHOD TO LOVING ANY PART OF YOUR BODY:
STEP 1. Bring your attention to whatever part of your body that you tend to focus on the most with your negative feelings, with your self-hate, with your shame. And I want you to bring your attention to it, directly to it. Take some deep breaths here. Just bring your attention to that part (WITHOUT JUDGEMENT).
Drop your awareness right into that part. (For me, it has always been my tummy. Sometimes it is other places but definitely my belly.) Drop right into that.
STEP 2. Now give it acceptance. “I accept you just as you are. I see you. I feel you. You are here with me. You are an integral part of my body temple.”
STEP 3. And now send that part love. As much as you can muster. Send any amount of authentic love to that part that you can. “I love you.” And send your compassion to that part, too.
Sound TOO simple? This is a practice that WILL transform you but it takes some dedication.
This is something you need to do multiple times a day – as often as you think of it, as often as you catch yourself having that feeling or that thought about any body part, anything that you are inclined to send hate or disgust or shame to in your body.
Whenever you catch that, your assignment is to STOP, take a deep breath, bring your awareness to that part, acknowledge it and say, “I accept you just as you are, I love you just as you are, thank you for being a part of my body temple.”
And treat that body part and your whole body and yourself with SO MUCH COMPASSION.
Because even when we are trying to transform our bodies – ESPECIALLY when we are trying to transform them, actually – this practice is super key.
For example, for me and my belly, I love my belly and I have learned to accept my belly and send it unconditional love as often as I possibly can. Yet at the same time, I am striving to lose a little bit of weight. Not to fit into any societal norms but literally for some health and mobility reasons. I’m not going to achieve lasting transformation by hating my belly.
Have you ever done a crash diet or an extreme workout to change your body? How did that go? You made a change and… how long did it last?
Your body has to feel loved and accepted in order to let go and transform. Otherwise you are just going to war with your body.
You will not achieve LASTING TRANSFORMATION of any body part – or any part of your emotional self for that matter – by going to war with it.
War is suffering. War is battle. War is the opposite of loving, compassionate healing. Everyone loses in war.
You are only going to achieve the ease and the transformation you desire through LOVING COMPASSIONATE HEALING.
So today I invite you to STOP THE WAR and try this oh so simple but hella powerful practice to bring love (and healing and transformation) to any body part.
Want more support in loving your body? My Body Love Intensive (3 Body Love Coaching Sessions + an Own Your Sexy® Photo Experience) has a few spots available. I’m also currently enrolling clients in my signature Own Your Sexy® One-on-One Coaching Package to go way deeper into transforming your sense of self-love, confidence and sexual power. DM me if you’re interested!
