“Your body is a temple, but only if you treat it as one.”~Astrid Alauda
Pause for a moment, breathe in and out, and check in with your body. Do you have any tension or tightness anywhere? Do you notice any pain or discomfort? Is there anywhere in your body that you do not have any sensation at all?
Now take a full body breath in and check in with how you feel about your body?
Are you feeling confident and uplifted when you think about your body or are you feeling critical and frustrated?
If you are feeling critical and frustrated you are not alone. Many women and girls struggle with body image issues and do not have high body esteem. The 2017 Dove Global Girls Beauty and Confidence Report showed that over half of girls around the world do not have high body esteem. This lack of confidence in their bodies impacted their assertiveness, belief in themselves, social behavior, and even their health.
Many women end up undermining their health and well-being by being critical and judgmental of their bodies. The more judgmental we are, the less nurturing choices we make. Over time our confidence in our bodies is diminished and we become stuck in a pattern of blaming and shaming our bodies, which only leads us to make less nurturing choices.
This cycle of body shaming is reinforced by our culture and the media, and feeds our habit of self-neglect. When we neglect ourselves, we tend to not follow up with preventative health care, exercise consistently, manage our stress levels, eat mindfully, or pay attention to early signs of illness. Neglecting our bodies has ripple effects on our health and decreases our likelihood of making nurturing choices.
We may come to believe that our bodies are betraying us. This is especially true if we are experiencing an ongoing health challenge, health crisis, live with chronic pain, or as our bodies change through the aging process.
In order to break free of feeling stuck in our own judgment and shame, and make new empowered and nurturing choices in our lives, we must develop a new loving relationship with our bodies.
Here are five ways to begin to lovingly nurture your body:
1. Start with compassion
No one has ever made a positive and sustainable change in their lives from judgment and shame. Choose instead to become friends with your body by treating your body with more kindness and compassion. When you find yourself judging and criticizing, pause and respond to yourself like you would to a dear friend. Intentionally release your criticism and bring kindness and tenderness to your body. Ask yourself what would be the most supportive and encouraging thing you could say to yourself. Then create a loving and compassionate response or mantra like “I love and accept my body” or “I am in the process of creating positive change” and repeat it over and over to transform your judgmental and critical thoughts.
2. Become friends with your body – regularly check in
Many of us are consistently disconnected from our bodies and miss important information being shared about our life experience. Think back to the beginning of this article where I asked you to pause and check in with your body. Was that the first time you had done so today or has it been longer? Our bodies are communicating with us all the time, whether we listen or not – reminding us when we are hungry, thirsty, or need to use the bathroom, and communicating how we feel and what we need. Sometimes these messages are subtle like the tightening of our jaw or our heart rate increasing when we are upset, or sometimes the messages are loud like feeling nauseous or becoming sweaty when we are anxious.
The information being communicated is critical to our making empowered and nurturing choices. Starting today make it a habit to check in with your body throughout the day. Notice any tension or tightness, any pain or discomfort or any other sensation in your body and make an intentional nurturing choice as a result. Becoming friends with your body may be the most empowering decision you can make and is essential to lovingly nurturing your body.
3. Gratitude – focus on the strengths
With your new practice of self-compassion and checking in regularly with your body, you have an opportunity to recognize all your body does for you. Including a gratitude practice in your day will reinforce your new positive relationship with your body and support you in focusing on your body’s strengths. You can start your day by acknowledging all your body does for you including your heart beating, your lungs keeping you alive, and all your organs supporting you without you even needing to ask. Coming from gratitude throughout the day will support you in making loving and nurturing choices and keep you feeling uplifted and encouraged about your body. What are you grateful for about your body right now? Use this as a daily journal prompt or a question to connect with your family and friends.
4. Create an intention to love your body
Another way to lovingly nurture your body is to set an intention to do so throughout the day. Every opportunity to make a nurturing choice is an opportunity to demonstrate love for your body. You can begin as soon as you wake up in the morning and set the intention for vibrant health, joyful experience, and abundant prosperity. When you have breakfast choose foods that will support your intention. When planning your day, include time for exercise, connecting with your body, and resting. Infuse your day with your loving intention and reflect on the difference it makes in supporting you in making nurturing decisions.
5. Create a morning and evening ritual
Beginning and ending your day with self-nurturing practices, reinforces your commitment to nurture yourself and your body. Each act of self-care can be transformed into a practice of self-nurturing by bringing love and intention to the process. Even the act of brushing our teeth can be nurturing if we bring mindfulness to the process and acknowledge it as an act of self-love. Putting on lotion can become an act of kindness and appreciation as we recognize all that our bodies do for us in the process. Create a morning and evening ritual to lovingly nurture your body and include the four other steps to transform your relationship with your body and bring more peace, joy and love into your life as a result.
Your body is a temple so choose to treat it that way as you nurture peace in the world from the inside out!
Peace, love and gratitude, Kelley
