Your relationship with yourself is the most important one you’ll ever have. It wasn’t until I learnt to be kind to myself, and truly practised loving my body that I was able to find a healthy balance in life – for life.
From personal experience, it’s not easy to overcome years of negative self-talk or the pressures we may feel from external sources (such as magazines and social media) to look a certain way. Enough restriction and punishment, it’s time to love every part of you as you are, unconditionally, right now.
Be gentle with yourself, it’s always a work in progress. Here are my top practices that I used to fall in love with my body and truly take care of it, which I continue to use daily to remain in this state of body love….
Love Jess x
Exercising with kindness
I will ONLY move my body in ways that I love. I wake up each morning and tune into my body and workout according to its needs. I commit to at least 20 mins a day – mostly for my mental health too.
Today was a 15 min yoga flow from the JSHealth App and a light walk. Some days I wake up and have more energy for a HIIT session and weight training. Some days I also allow REST days where I do not exercise at all. Being in tune = body love.
Being kind to myself
The way we speak to ourselves matters. These days I am just kinder to myself and embrace flexibility and balance as much as I can. I used to put harsh rules and restrictions on my body and I have learnt to let that go. My body always feels better when I am kinder.
Throwing out the scales
I threw out the scale over a decade ago and I am certain divorcing my body from the number watching really freed me and helped heal my relationship with my body. This also allows space for you to rebuild body love, without comparison and negative self talk.
Eating mindfully
Sitting down at each meal without distraction, phones and chaos is key.
I sit down to each meal, take 3x breaths before eating and say a silent prayer of gratitude for the nutritious food in front of me. You will be amazed at how much this = body love.
Doing mirror work
Imagine looking in the mirror and being grateful – not hateful. This was impossible for me in my teens and early twenties. However, when I started body loving (not body hating), my physical body balanced out and my relationship with my body started to heal… which brought me so much mental peace. It truly is exhausting hating your body. When you switch to body love, it feels so good.
Next time you look in the mirror, choose to really feel grateful for just one thing about the beautiful, unique person looking back at you… it can be anything! Say something positive to yourself! Try it…even if it doesn’t feel real initially. Over time you will notice a huge improvement in the negative self talk which has a ripple effect on your whole state of wellbeing.
Time connecting with myself and my body
Finding space and time to reconnect to my body really fuels body love.
For example, this could mean carving out 10-20 minutes a day to exercise in ways that I love, a walk in nature or resting time. Then really being mindful of how my body feels. When you reconnect to your precious body, you build up respect and love for it.
Saying NO to comparison
When body comparison starts to sneak in, simply notice it and label it as that, instead of getting caught up with the narrative. Then come back to the appreciation for your body and it’s unique biochemistry and that it can ultimately never look like anyone else’s – that’s the beauty of it!
No ‘body’ is perfect. No shape is perfect. What you see on social media is often airbrushed and filtered. Also, most people have parts of their body they wish to improve on. When you accept the imperfection and then embrace it as you, deep body love can really start to happen.