How to Love and Accept Yourself just as you are in 3 Steps
Do you love yourself? All of you. Ever inch, inside and out? Is it even possible? How can you love and accept yourself just as you are?
In the last few months I’ve been very present to my relationship with my body in particular. Since I’ve been married, I’ve weighed anywhere from skinny 117 lbs to frumpy 140 lbs (not including when I’ve been pregnant). I’ve had a roller coaster ride of loving and hating my body. And yet, how can I be my true self, mind body and soul, if I can’t love myself inside and out.
I look at some of the clothes I have that I wore just 2 years ago. I threw out all of my “fat clothes” then because I was never going to be that size again. And yet, hear I am wishing I didn’t toss those jean shorts that I loved, because they would fit me beautifully now.
And I know I’m not alone in this conversation. Today I came across a beautiful video about Taryn Brumfitt in Australia who when from hating herself with a frumpy body to transforming to the perfect fit muscular and fit body… still feeling empty. She actually fell in love with her body, later when she redeveloped her curves and started to embrace her own lusciousness.
And that’s where I am right now. Looking at how does my body want to express itself. How do I feel good. What looks good to me? What is my ideal weight and shape?
I look at those pictures from when I was super skinny at 117 lbs and can see the bones sticking out. Even just a few years ago when I hovered around 120 lbs, my once huge breast feeding boobs, don’t look quite so sexy with a lot of extra skin and not so much fullness.
So here I am… probably around 135 lbs (where I was when I was at my Frumpy stage). And that is what I am embracing. How to love and accept myself just as I am. I’m learning to love my curves and the sexiness of the softness of my body. I’m discovering how to ask my body what it wants, and to listen to what it wants to eat, move and be expressed.
Here are the steps I’ve gone through:
1. I get to decide what looks and feels good, by my definition of sexy, healthy and fit.
As I look back at how I felt at those different times of my life, when I’ve been super skinny and people have been concerned about my health to when I’ve felt frumpy, I get that that journey was about my perception of what I needed to look like. It wasn’t about embracing my beauty and focusing on being happy and healthy.
I was so concerned with being skinny, and how small of clothes I could fit into, that I wasn’t truly present in how I felt, and how much I loved myself.
2. Bodies come in many shapes in sizes- applaud them all, starting with mine
There are so many shapes of bodies out there. They are all gorgeous. I can appreciate them all. And the place to begin is to tell my body how much I love it. I can love what I see and also be excited about the strength and health that I’m pursuing in the expression of my body. I can do both at the same time.
3. Loving my body is honouring my soul’s temple
This gorgeous body is the home for my soul for this lifetime. Honouring and accepting this beautiful physical body is about my soul’s journey and honouring my soul. My body is my temple and is one of the major forms of my soul’s expressions, so to truly embrace my soul and my soul’s journey, I need to love and accept my body too.
Getting present to this conversation helps me to be true to myself and my soul’s purpose of expressing myself fully.
Where are you on your journey to loving and accepting yourself as you are?