Accepting Your Body Is Shortchanging Yourself. Here’s Why…

Let’s stop going half-way in our relationship to our bodies.

It is great to accept our bodies and to eat and move in ways that help us to like them, but it is not the end of the journey. It is only the first step.

Eating a plant-based, low sugar, paleo or mostly-healthy-most-of-the-time diet is wonderful, but it is a condition. It puts a limit on how much joy you can experience, and how much love you can have for your body.

To me that is unacceptable. I want real love. True love. Unconditional love.

Everyone talks about wanting more love. Many of us are consciously working to deepen our self-love, but if we continue to put conditions on this most primal and natural relationship that we have with our bodies, we will never have as much love as we could.

In the end the only relationship we will have for the duration of our time on Earth is the one we have with ourselves. So let’s make it freaking amazing.

Put it to the test. Answer these questions honestly. You deserve to know.

1. If you could not go to barre class, run, practice yoga asana, or exercise in any way for two years would you still love your body?

2. If you ate sugar, even when it wasn’t the most awesome cookie in the world, or ate fries instead of mixed veggies today, would you still love your body?

3. If you didn’t know how much you weighed or what size jeans you wore, would you still love your body?

4. If you received no compliments on your physical appearance, no “likes” on your Instagram photos, and no comments on your Facebook profile, would you still love your body?

5. If the simple fact that your body is yours, your own unique container for your mind, heart, and soul, and your only vehicle for physically experiencing this life enough for you to really truly love it?

If you answered a resounding yes to all five questions, good for you! Share your story loudly and spread the world that truly unconditional body love is possible.

If you answered no to all or a few, no worries. It’s totally okay to be in a place of “body like” while you work on falling madly and deeply in love.

Now that you know, you can stop short-changing yourself.

The truth is for most of us it is a process. It is a long-term romance.

We start with accepting our bodies and resolving to stop looking for reasons to hate them. We start to treat ourselves better and as a result we like our bodies more. Eventually we kind of love them. That love can keep growing if you nurture it.

We just have to get honest about the conditions that we are putting on our body love and then break through them.

Truth be told, I happened upon the realization that I unconditionally love my body at the most unlikely time.

I was looking in the mirror after three years of very little exercise and less than optimal food choices. I was certainly not at the top of my self-care game.

I had been focusing on being pregnant, giving birth by emergency C-section, recovering, and raising my son. All the while creating and running my business.

Having a long history with eating disorders, I had expected body image struggles to pop up during pregnancy and after. Honestly, they didn’t.

Never once did I love my body or self less because I was larger, softer, less active and devoting less time to creating balanced plant-based meals.

As I began to workout, practice yoga asana, cook colorful meals, and wear clothes that reflected my pre-baby style, I still loved my body. I didn’t love my body more; I just kept loving it.

It was amazing. It wasn’t really surprising. I had decided long ago that unconditional love was what I was aiming for. That was the only measurement that mattered.

My experience is mine, but it is not unique. I see men and women everyday who decide to take the leap out of like and into love and create amazing relationships for themselves with their bodies.

You absolutely can do so if you choose. So choose love. Acknowledge the blocks and conditions that you have set up and commit to knocking them down.

We do not choose to have eating disorders, disordered eating, or negative body image. If you are struggling, it is not your fault.

We do choose to commit to healing in a real and deep way.

If this resonates with you. If you are ready to go all in and love yourself then decide that today is the day. Begin now.

*Written for Gather Yoga

*Photo credit St. Jane Photography