How To Start Loving Your Body Right Now
08:00
Today's post I am going to share with you how you can start to love your body right now..
Follow those who promote good body positivity
The easiest way for us to get into a negative cycle of feeling bad about ourselves and the way we look is by following those people who have a negative influence on us. This might be because they shame particular body types that society might label us as, or they might not even be purposely trying to make us feel bad for the way we look, but seeing the way they are and how their body looks can lead us to compare ourselves to them. This can then cause a downward spiral of negative thinking and putting our bodies down.
Instead you need to unfollow and remove these kinds of people from your social media, as well as ensuring those who have a negative impact in your everyday life know that you don't want to talk about your body or weight anymore and if they continue to make you feel bad on purpose, then get rid. You don't need that. You're worthy of so much more. It will be tough to do, but once you have done it you're then giving yourself that chance to be surrounded by good positive vibes and therefore this will make it easier to start loving your body for exactly what it is.
Don't do what I did. Go for the things what you want to do and still love to do no matter what your shape or size happens to me. The way you look does not define you and anyone who thinks it does has a problem of their own. It isn't a reflection of you as a person.
Instead you need to unfollow and remove these kinds of people from your social media, as well as ensuring those who have a negative impact in your everyday life know that you don't want to talk about your body or weight anymore and if they continue to make you feel bad on purpose, then get rid. You don't need that. You're worthy of so much more. It will be tough to do, but once you have done it you're then giving yourself that chance to be surrounded by good positive vibes and therefore this will make it easier to start loving your body for exactly what it is.
Practice loving and accepting your body
Most of us if not all of us have gone through some stage in our life where we have hated our bodies and wanted to change them in someway. When we pour so much hatred towards our bodies and only see them as a weight, we forget about all those wonderful and important things it actually does for us. Be grateful for the way your body functions every second of the day to keep you alive and to keep you experiencing all the amazing things life can be. We owe our bodies a lot, so why shouldn't we appreciate them more often?
Carrying out simple mind exercises daily can really help us to practice gratitude and mindfulness regarding our bodies. You could simply just stand in the mirror once a day and take in your body for what it is. Practice learning to love what you have and finding things that you do like about your body e.g the dimples in your back or your peachy bum. Change your negative and bad thought patterns for good ones that overtime will become positive habits.
Accept that your body changes
Just like how we change and grow as human beings as we go through lives, our bodies also do the same thing for many different reasons. Things like puberty, pregnancy, stress, health and medication can influence the changes our bodies go through. Seeing a change in our body isn't a bad thing. It just means it is adapting. No one is completely flawless. Everyone's bodies develop over time. We don't all look the same throughout our whole life journey.
Learning to accept that our bodies won't always be the same one day is a great way to learn to appreciate what you have right there in the moment and be welcoming of any changes to your body in the future without any negative self talk.
Putting on weight isn't always a bad thing either. It could mean that you're finally giving yourself a chance to get back to a healthy weight by not restricting yourself, or you have your appetite back enough to start enjoying meals again after a bad period of health.
Stop all that diet talk
As mentioned above, we're constantly being told by professionals and those around us to carry out a healthy lifestyle. Whilst this is good and beneficial for many different aspects of our health, the one message that seems to go missing in all of this is that our wellbeing is also super important.
When I did my blog post at the start of this year on the things wrong with diet culture, it came after seeing so many people putting themselves down for enjoying food over the Christmas period. It made me feel so sad to see these people (mainly girls and women) so guilt ridden for choosing to indulge.
This shame and guilt we are made to feel after eating particular foods comes from the whole diet culture fad. As a society we have created a culture that is more concerned about the size or weight of someone and the food someone eats, over things like their well being and health. The easiest and quickest way we can stop diet culture from affecting our lives and be done with it all together is to just stop all that diet talk.
Sure diets can work and be beneficial to some people, but they don't come with their own risks and have the ability to drive us into a world of self hatred when we don't get the results or feelings we desire. Diet companies make us believe that if we lose weight and look a particular way, then we'll be happier with ourselves.
The answer is no!!!!
Your thoughts aren't going to change just because you've lost weight. You're still going to have those thoughts. But if you change the way you see your body now, those thoughts will change and you will be promoting more happiness than any diet company could ever bring you.
We will only start to be happier with ourselves when we learn to accept what we already have and grow our confidence in the way our bodies are right there and when. When we stop labelling foods as good or bad, then we will be able to be ok with allowing ourselves to consume the things we enjoy in a balanced healthy lifestyle.
This will make you far happier!
Focus on your fitness ability
Much similar to diets, we can be sucked into a world of fitness where we have to be constantly setting weight loss goals. Instead of setting weight goals, we should be working towards setting our fitness ability goals. You will gain more excitement from being able to run for longer on the treadmill or lift a heavier weight at the gym, then you will from setting weight goals that you think you need to.
Having a fitness goal to work towards can push you to work harder and give you more confidence in your ability to perform well. This can bring amazing benefits like improving our wellbeing, mental health and confidence in our own selves with what we can actually achieve.
Set the fitness goals that will make you feel good. If you end up losing weight or gaining muscle, something you actually want to do for health reasons rather than what society brands you to do, then it will just be an added bonus.
Still do what you love and want to do
Over the years I have felt like I have put myself off doing particular things I have wanted to do because I know I don't fit the criteria. By doing this, I have self sabotaged myself because of a fear of society rejecting me and therefore I have potentially lost out on some amazing opportunities.
Don't do what I did. Go for the things what you want to do and still love to do no matter what your shape or size happens to me. The way you look does not define you and anyone who thinks it does has a problem of their own. It isn't a reflection of you as a person.
Your own self worth shouldn't be measured on what weight you see on the scales or your clothes size. Don't wait for the opportunities to come to you. Go for them.
It's your time to shine!
Let's start now, name something below in the comments what you love about your body.
Lauren x
12 comments