On this day of your life, I believe God wants you to know…
…that there is something ‘wrong’ with everything.
No matter what you are looking at, you can
find something wrong with it, something imperfect,
something that is not okay with you. Don’t worry,
if you look hard enough you’ll find it.
There is also something ‘right’ with everything.
No matter what you are looking at,
you can find something right with it,
something perfect.
There remains, then, only one question:
What are you going to look at? What are you
choosing to notice? What is your perspective?
(I’ll bet you already know
what God’s perspective is…)
–Neale Donald Walsch
Many women spend most of their time dwelling on what’s wrong with their bodies.
You may be:
- Wishing you were thinner.
- Wishing you were stronger.
- Wishing you were prettier.
- Wishing the weight would just go away.
- Wishing you could eat whatever you want.
- Wishing you didn’t have to exercise.
Wishing, wishing, wishing.
Here’s the problem with all that wishing.
While that may feel like you’re focused on what you want, you are actually focused on is what you are missing. You lack a slim and strong body, you lack beauty, you lack food that you love, and you lack the joy of moving your body.
When you take into account the Foundation Principle that “Energy Attracts Like Energy,” also known as the Law of Attraction, you begin to see that focusing on what you lack actually attracts more of the same.
As a society, we have been well-trained to focus on problems and what we lack, so it’s perfectly understandable if this is your automatic thought process.
But to paraphrase Shawn Archor, a Harvard psychology researcher and author of The Happiness Advantage, it is a societal myth that we cannot change our mindset, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to focus on gratitude.
True, if you hate your body, you won’t be able to say you love it with any authenticity, but you may be able to appreciate that you can stand and walk and breathe in and out. If you can’t think of anything about your body that you really do appreciate, focus on something else that you do appreciate. Just get off the subject of your body altogether.
Here are five tips to begin appreciating your body:
- Start small and build from there. Get away from how you look if that hangs you up and think about all the amazing things your body does for you every day. Start off appreciating your toes because they give you balance and your feet that help you move from place to place. Appreciate your ankles and calves for being flexible and enabling you to walk. Appreciate your hard-working knees that take the impact of every step you take, etc.
- Practice in bed. (This may not be what you think!) Some of the best times to practice appreciation are just before you go to sleep and just after you wake up. Appreciate how comfortable your body is as it rests on the mattress, how supported you are, how warm and soft the blankets are against your skin. This is a great way to set the energy for the day.
- Focus on the action. Think about how your bones are moving as you walk. Feel you clothes move against your skin. Notice your hand as you grasp a cup, and how it feels as you reach up and place it in the cupboard.
- Avoid the mirror. If all you do is judge yourself when you are looking at your reflection, just avoid mirrors. Instead, focus on feeling confident, attractive, strong. Appreciate the feeling.
- Make lists. One of the best ways to begin practicing appreciation is to literally write lists of things you appreciate. Review your list every day and add to it over time.
Whatever it is that you can appreciate about your body, focus on that, and focus on it as much as possible.
Do that every day for a week, and next week you may find that you have a few more things that you can appreciate. Practice appreciation for a month, and you will notice a turn in the energetic-tide towards creating the body you want.
Together we can do it!
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