It’s time to learn to love your body girl.
And I know, it’s not an easy thing.
Especially when no one teaches you how to. And especially if you surround yourself with people who denigrate themselves daily or who hate their image.
But the good news is that accepting and appreciating your body is accessible to anyone. Yes – you included.
No matter what you look like, what your size is or what your skin looks like, you already have everything you need to love yourself.
Let me show you how.
You’re not alone
And it’s important to be aware of this.
Not loving our body has almost become a predisposition in us women. It’s a fact since several studies in America and Australia have found that 80-90% of women don’t like their bodies.
Which means that the woman you see on Instagram, that is your #bodygoal… She probably doesn’t like her body either.
And this proves that loving your body has nothing to do with physical appearance. It’s all about the way you understand and listen to your body.
Being in tune with your body
To have a good relationship with your body, you first have to know and understand it.
And that starts by listening to what it’s telling you.
This may sound like basic advice, but I know that many women don’t listen to their bodies enough.
This might be your case too, for example when you :
- Watch Netflix until 1am even though you fell asleep 3x in front of a single episode of You
- Hold back from eating the cookies in front of you even though you’re starving
- Go to the gym even though you’re aching from head to toe
- Go to dinner with a big smile on your face although you had an anxiety attack 20 minutes earlier
All these examples reflect a person who does not listen to her body or emotions. In other words, acting like nothing happened.
And that’s how we end up being super hard on ourselves. Expecting our bodies to function normally when they are asking for a break, attention, food or compassion.
It’s like when you keep using your smartphone even though it notified “low battery.” At some point, it will shut down. And it wouldn’t be fair to say that your smartphone sucks, because you didn’t listen to its need. So you have to deal with the consequences.
Same with your body.
It needs energy when it screams “Low battery”. And it needs to be emptied when it tells you “Memory full”.
Knowing how to listen to yourself
So, I know. Understanding your body’s needs isn’t always as easy as : Your stomach is growling, so you need food. Especially when it comes to dealing with your emotions.
That’s why I recommend journaling every morning or at the end of your day.
Writing about how you feel, both physically and mentally, will help you better understand your desires, needs, and how you react to events happening in your environment.
To help you out, here are some questions you can ask yourself and reflect on:
- How do I feel in my body today?
- How do I feel mentally?
- What made me feel this way?
- What would feel good right now?
- Have I listened to my body’s signals in the last 24 hours?
- Did I listen to my intuition?
- Was it a good or bad choice?
Obviously, as women, many elements of our lives are influenced by our menstrual cycle. Whether it’s our energy levels, hunger, our emotions or self-confidence.
So I can only recommend that you learn more about your cycle and its different phases. I have a blog post that talks about the 4 phases of the menstrual cycle and how they influence our daily life.
If you are interested, you can check it out here.
Understand yourself to be in tune with yourself
Now that you know how important it is to listen to yourself to feel good about your body, you can’t stop there.
What’s next?
Understanding what’s going on in your body rather than assuming that “it is what it is”.
Take the time to understand things like why you :
- Have unbearable period pains every month
- Can’t fall asleep at night
- Wake up in the middle of the night because you’re hungry
- Are anxious around people
- Can’t lose weight, even though you work out 5 times a week
- Don’t have lots of confidence in yourself
The list can go on and on, but it’s to show you that a lot of things are in your power.
You just have to check with yourself, understand what’s going on, and once again, listen to your body.
It was only by listening to myself that I realized that :
- I wasn’t losing weight because I wasn’t eating enough (yet my body was trying to tell it to me, I was hungry all the time!)
- I had a hormonal imbalance (although my body was trying to tell me with acne and unbearable period pain)
- I’m an introvert and need a lot of time alone (my body made me realize this too, by being drained of energy after birthday celebrations)
What I want you to know is that your body is constantly giving you signs about how it is feeling and what it needs. Listen to it. Try to understand why you feel the way you feel – whether good or bad.
Because once you start to understand how your body works, you will be able to go along with it; accepting it, being compassionate, loving it.
You’re going to give it what it needs and it’s going to give you what you need in return. Whether it’s acne free skin, losing a few extra pounds or trusting that you are an incredible person, just the way you are.
In the end, you are your body. You are with it, not against it.
It needs you just like you need it.
Don’t ruin this relationship just because you feel like it’s not cooperating or matching with your expectations.
Communicate. Make this relationship between you and your body complementary.
Because you deserve it.
I hope this blog post on how to learn to love your body helped you in any way. If you liked it, you may also want to check my article on 10 Tips to boost body confidence.
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