The First Thing You Should Do To Start Loving Your Body More

To really decide what the first thing you should do is actually kind of hard. I mean we all struggle in different ways. We all have different reasons why we feel insecure, why we diet and why we struggle to love ourselves. We all have different narratives, different negative thought patterns and ultimately different end goals through this process.

But at the end of the day, if each of us could do one simple step that would get us closer to loving ourselves, what would it be?

I think that first step is forgiveness.

Ok, hear me out! haha I am sure some of you are like, wait, what? Forgiveness? But I really feel like this is the first thing we need to do when it comes to allowing ourselves to move forward, freed from the baggage that has held us down for so long.

I mean think about it, how many awful things have you said to yourself? How many hurtful thoughts have you had about your body? How much judgement have you looked at yourself with? How much pain have you put your body though to change? How much hurt have you experienced in the pursuit of trying to be the worlds idea of beauty?

When we can learn to forgive ourselves for the way we have treated our bodies and learn to forgive our bodies for maybe the ways it has not worked the way we want it too, we can begin to create a mutual relationship rooted in love and peace. Often our body has done nothing wrong bur tried to survive. But it can feel like it’s working against us, and that resentment we feel starts to build up the longer and longer we go trying to change it.

But when you stop and decide to forgive yourself and instead choose to befriend your body, the world opens up in a whole new way.

This quote hit me as I was scrolling on Pinterest one day and I want to share it with you.

“and i said to my body. softly. ‘i want to be your friend.’ it took a long breath. and replied ‘i have been waiting my whole life for this.”
―Nayyirah Waheed

I mean how beautiful is that? Call me cheesy, I don’t care. But I was not my body’s friend for a long time. I was not it’s ally and I was not loving it well. It was hard to love it when I felt so much frustration towards it.

Only when I could finally forgive it for doing the job it was created to do, and forgive myself for being blinded by what society had told me I should look like, was I truly able to begin to move forward.

And don’t get me wrong, this is one of many steps. But this step is a biggie. Forgiving ourselves for something we didn’t even realize at the time was wrong, can be super hard. But your body deserves your love. Your body deserves your thankfulness. And even if it doesn’t look quite how you want it too, it’s still worthy anyways.

You see, your body is not spiteful. It is not actively working against you. Your body is uniquely yours, created for you so that you could honor and cherish it in this life. Your curves, your muscles, your skin, your bones, your hair, your freckles, your scars, your dimples, your bumps and your bruises…this is your body.

Learning to love ourselves more is not about finally believing we are beautiful and our bodies are worthy. Loving ourselves more means we realize that we are so much more than our bodies. So instead of fighting with yourself, instead of hating and judging…

Forgive.

Forgive your body and acknowledge that you are ready to be it’s friend. This is the first step to truly loving your body more.

xx

Kami