“Do You Love Your Body?”
When was the last time that you said, “I love my body” out loud? Have you ever said this? When was the last time you said it in front of your son or daughter and modelled what you want them to feel about themselves?
This powerful quote about body image was spoken by Kate Winslet and is posted on the @bodyheart website:
“As a child, I never heard one woman say to me ‘I love my body.’ Not my mother, my elder sister, my best friend. No one woman has ever said, ‘I am so proud of my body.’ So I make sure to say it to Mia, because a positive physical outlook has to start at an early age.” ~Kate Winslet
These words have been echoing in my head all week, as I admit, through no mistake of being raised in our culture, that I would feel pretty self-indulgent and dishonest if I spoke those words out loud because I, in fact, have a lot I don’t like about my body. But what if I started focusing on loving my body, even if it needed improvements, instead of hating it for not being where I wish it was? Why can’t we love something that is imperfect just like we love other things in our life that have flaws? Who started this whole business about hating our bodies because they aren’t impeccable? I would beg to say that there is no way to feel like a body is perfect anyway, so what is wrong with us and these voices in our heads?
Say it out loud. “I love my body.”
Wow, that feels weird, doesn’t it? “I love my body.” Eaw, how could I say that, I don’t feel that at all. “I love my body.”
Wow, it almost hurts my throat to choke that out. Why is this so difficult? “I love my body.” Okay, let’s stop and think about this.
Your body was a Divine gift to you. Yes, you might need to take better care of it, do more jump-squats or exfoliate more, but why not love something that was the first gift you ever received?
We don’t get a new puppy, then spend the rest of its life saying “I hate your body” because of the skin rashes, white hair, flab and age spots that might cover it over time. No, we love on that furry body because, well, because we LOVE that dog. Why can’t we do this with ourselves?
Why hate this thing that gives us life, the joy of movement, and the freedom of expression?
Why hate what was so wonderfully and perfectly formed in our mother’s womb only to have us later snarl at it and say we are not happy with it now that it has lived and shows it?
How can we keep hating this gift when this body is the very thing that grants us the ability to express the love that it also deserves?
And what if we said we loved our body in front of another person?
What if I … what if you … actually started to believe that? How much easier would life feel, and how much happier would we be?
More importantly, as a Mom myself, how much more power would I grant my three little ones in their next forty years to feel this way about themselves from the beginning?
Let’s start tonight, at bedtime, or in the morning at breakfast. I am going to.
Let’s remember that what we say to your children becomes their inner dialogue. Let’s give them a dialogue of self-love so that they can be comfortable feeling and speaking that way about themselves.
What if you could talk to your child at forty years old, and he or she could say to you,
“Mom/Dad, I didn’t know that it was unusual when I was young to love my body. As I got out into the world and heard how much people hate their bodies, I wondered why I never felt this way. And I now know why I didn’t learn to hate my body. It was because of you. I thought everyone told their kids that they loved their bodies and now I know none of my friends ever heard this. Thank you for teaching me to love who I am completely – I believe this changed my life.”
Wow.
Now go and say it out loud so someone else you love can hear it. “I love my body.”
You are allowed to laugh the first time … but after that, find the openness in your heart to digest these words about yourself and keep saying it. “I love my body.”
And your children and grandchildren will too.
- DR Karin
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