The thing about loving your body is that for all that we talk about it, most people don’t. Most people wander through their lives, wondering exactly why they aren’t as happy as some of the people that they know – why they haven’t landed their dream job; why their relationships lack intimacy and depth; why they find it so difficult to get up in the morning; why their sex lives are
just not quite as fun as they could be.
We are not taught to be shiny baubles of self love and light. We aren’t taught to discuss our strengths or successes openly. We are taught instead to keep ourselves small, by allocating the majority of our attention to how we look, how we could look BETTER, and the ways that we are going to improve ourselves. We base relationships in self loathing:
“Ugh. My thighs are so gigantic…”
“YOUR thighs?! Mine are at least twice as huge.”
And a friendship is born. How often have you caught yourself making these sorts of disparaging remarks, because you can’t think of something better to say? Or are looking for some common ground to discuss? Unfortunately, many of us do it without even realizing it.
What if, instead, we focused on our positive attributes? What if we reinforced one another’s strengths?
What if we stopped hating our bodies so much?
I for one know that the exact moment that I stopped loathing my body I freed up a ton of energy. Suddenly, I had the ability to look outside of my chronic fear, pain, and low self-esteem, and start DOING things. I started writing. I started talking. I started telling other women about learning to love
their bodies.
And the truth? Once I stopped hating my body – I started wanting to take better care of it. I wanted to go for a walk, and instead of calculating the number of calories I was burning minute to minute, I was enjoying a conversation with a friend. I ate things that tasted good, and I started better understanding how to stop when I was full because I wasn’t eating to fill the void of my hurt.
It doesn’t happen over night, but it is possible.
It’s possible to learn how to love your body regardless of your side or position on the fitness spectrum.
It’s possible that you are so much more than the size on the label of your jeans.
Learning to love your body can be frightening. It can be difficult to re-pattern your thoughts if you have become accustomed to using your body as a scapegoat for all of your perceived failures – but it can be done.
And every aspect of your life will be improved by your effort.
Read more from this body image blogger behind Medicinal Marzipan – a blog about self-esteem, healthy living, and learning to love yourself just a little bit more every single day.
