A few more inspiring words to make your day:
Post this in your Kitchen: 10 Tips for a Mindful Home.
How Emotions are Stored in our Bodies.
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A few days ago, I was teaching a yin yoga class about self-love.
During the class, I saw some students cry and others smile with sweet tenderness. In the end and overall, there was a general sense of gratitude—they had settled back into themselves and reconnected to love and compassion. But why was it lost?
Mind and body are deeply connected and there is no need to prove it anymore.
Accepting ourselves the way we are—physically—is one of the biggest steps to take toward self-love. Too often, we forgot about our body and take refuge in our mind. But if you don’t love your physical self, how do you avoid the sadness and frustration about it from taking over your mind?
If you are not at peace with your body, you will never be at peace with your spirit.
We are all born with this physical envelope, our physical body; all different and never the same—what makes us unique!
Some bodies are born more functional, some more pretty and more perfect in regards to society’s criteria. Without this envelope, we might be nothing more than a conscious bubble of energy flying around.
This envelope is with us until the moment we die. We don’t die whole, but the physical envelope passes, which has followed its purpose of supporting our spirit on Earth.
Our body is a gift that we have to take care of in this life.
If you look at it from a practical point of view, a body is something amazing and in a way, magical too. We can control it, but not completely; it works and grows by itself, without our need to think of its internal processes.
From birth to death, our body grows and evolves with us.
Our body grants us many opportunities: to move, walk, dance, feel, see, and breath. Our body allows us to be, and to exist on this spiritual, yet material plane.
Our body is like a brand new car—it needs care and love to keep functioning properly. The more we take care of it, the longer it should last. We shouldn’t wait for illness and injuries to remind us to take care of it.
Because we take it for granted, we often forget about it and live a lifestyle which involves us spending free time watching movies and laying on the couch with a big bowl of chips in front of us.
Would you park your car on a spot full of glass pieces or feed the engine with dirty oil? No! Not if you want to keep it healthy.
Same goes for our bodies; we need to keep our body clean on the inside by eating healthy, organic (vegetarian) food, and avoiding intoxicants like alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs.
And clean on the outside by a regular physical practice, daily shower, and massages.
But even if we follow all these healthy lifestyle choices, the main fuel we need to give to ourselves is love!
Can we give our bodies love and acceptance as we are, including all our “imperfections?”
Our imperfections make us perfect because they makes us unique.
We are all different, so who has the right to judge what type of body is perfect or not? What’s the criteria?
White or Black, tall or small, thin or fat, who has the right to point at parts of our body and label them as imperfections? Modern society has brainwashed us and we are never happy the way we are.
Take myself, for example. As I was looking at myself in the mirror this morning, I had the following critiques:
>> My nose is too big.
>> My teeth are too yellow.
>> I have small boobs.
>> I have a fat belly that’s getting saddle bags with age.
>> I have a small ass.
>> I don’t like my feet.
>> By the way, time to pluck my eyebrows!
Yes, this is me; this is how I am and sometimes think about myself. But I’ve made peace with my imperfections. I acknowledge them and allow them to be, freeing myself from hate, dislike, and frustration.
It takes time to accept yourself the way you are, but the reward is immense: love and peace of mind.
Society wants us to be all the same, to lose our wonderful uniqueness. It teaches us to love a beautiful model, but not ourselves. We are always comparing, instead of just being.
Surgery is the biggest proof of non-acceptance of our body the way it is. Some girls wants the face of Angelina Jolie, or the butt of Kim Kardashian, or bigger boobs because “men like it.” But the beautiful thing is you are not them, and you never will be.
You are who you are—perfect in your imperfections.
Stop caring about what people think. Stop worrying about society’s judgments.
You don’t have to starve yourself for days in order to be the next model in the catalog. You don’t have to shave if you don’t want to. Hair is natural, and we’re born with it.
Do things for yourself, not for others; they aren’t the ones that should define you.
Never forget to tell yourself how beautiful and worthy you are.
Take five minutes every morning to look at yourself in the mirror and repeat a self-love affirmation out loud or in your mind. Write it down on a Post-it and stick it on the mirror:
I am beautiful.
I am worthy.
I’m a magical being.
I love and accept myself unconditionally.
I am proud of who I am.
I am beautiful—inside and out.
I am enough.
I am blessed.
Feel free to write your own and share in the comments below!
Personally, I’m a big fan of the Ho’ponopono, a Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness.
In this case, repeat to yourself these four sentences:
I’m sorry,
Please forgive me,
Thank you,
I love you.
Greet yourself with a beautiful smile, give yourself a good hug, and start the day filled with love and gratitude.
” To fall in love with yourself is the first secret of happiness.”~ R. Morley.
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AUTHOR: CYNTHIA CHANOINE
IMAGE: KYLE GLENN/UNSPLASH
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