Simple Mindset Shift To Love Your Body
I’m sure we have all experienced negative thoughts regarding our bodies at one point or another in our lives. This could be negative thoughts about body image or frustration with your body for not being a specific way. What if I told you that there’s a simple mindset shift you can easily implement to start to reduce these negative thoughts and to create love for your body? This mindset shift has helped me so much in creating a positive relationship with my body so I share it with you in hopes that you experience the same benefits.
Body Image
When thinking about body image and beauty standards, where did these standards really come from? Who created these beauty standards that we think we need to live up to? Who decided that aging is a bad thing that we need to avoid at all costs? Just asking these questions to yourself can help you to start to break free from emotional blocks you have about your body or image.
The ‘beauty standard’ is always changing because we make it up as humans! The ‘beauty standard’ doesn’t matter because we just create a false ideals, ideals that doesn’t even stay the same. Even in recent years you can see how the ‘ideal body image’ has changed, between being super skinny being ‘in’ to having a an hour glass figure being ‘in’. And that’s over a short time period. The point is, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you are taking care of your body, that you work to keep it healthy, and that you feel good!
The human body is fluid and ever changing. We want to stay looking the same throughout our lives but this isn’t the human experience. We are all going to age and our bodies are going to change and that’s ok! That’s the blessing we get to experience in this human life.
Mind-body connection
You know those negative things we say to ourselves about our bodies….those statements are harmful not only for the mindset, they’re also harmful for the body itself because the two are connected. This is called the mind-body connection meaning what we think impacts our physical body. If you’ve ever been super stressed out in your mind and then actually felt unwell physically, you can see how this connection works.
And this connection goes both ways.
Thinking positive thoughts in our mind can help our body to actually feel better. The mind is a powerful place and we can use it’s power for good by creating thoughts that are empowering and loving. An easy way to put this into action is to try to correct a negative thought with a positive one. Say you’re not happy with how your jeans are looking on you today; pick something you like to bring the mind away from the negative. Maybe you like how your hair looks so you could say something like, “I’m really loving my hair right now and how beautiful it is.”
Eventually, you’ll start to change the thoughts to loving yourself in your jeans but sometimes this can be challenging to do at first so the suggestion above might be an easier place to start.
The point is to remember that the mind and body are inherently connected, so the more you can create thoughts of love for your body, the more you benefit your entire being.
One Simple Mindset Shift To Love Your Body
The simple mindset shift I want to share with you is to think of your body as a container for your soul. The physical body is the home for your soul; it’s the home you have for you to live out your human experience. The body (like the mind) is a tool you have to interact in this world, but the mind and body are not who you really are. Your soul is who you really are which is why you are not defined by your body.
It’s important to do things to care for your home (the body) such as eating healthy, keeping it moving, and allowing it to rest, just as there are things you do to keep your actual home as a pleasant place to live. If a faucet is broken and leaking all over, are you going to ignore it or fix it so that you don’t have flood damage? Same for the body, do things to keep it running as optimally as you can and take care of things when they come up.
Be sure to remember the purpose of why you do these things. You eat healthy and workout to keep your home functioning optimally, not because you need to look a certain way.
This mindset shift of recognizing your body as a container for your soul is not to ignore the body, it’s to understand that your body doesn’t define you. Care for it and love it, don’t tear it down for not looking or feeling a certain way.
When you dive deep into a yoga practice and yoga philosophy, you know this mindset shift to be true.
I’m far from perfect in regards to this topic. Do I still have days where I feel something negative about my body? Yes I do, but overall this mindset shift has helped me to make some major improvements in regards to self love for my body. The mind isn’t always easy to change, it takes work, but it can be done.
Find what makes your body feel the best, that’s what’s important; and show it some love for being your home in this world.
Namaste
