Love Your Body

10 Fun Ways to Learn to Love Your Body

By Roo Mulligan

One of the most important things we can learn is to love and cherish our bodies. When we love something we take care of it, we value it, we want to use it and we make time for it. When we dislike someone we avoid them, we say judgmental things about them, and we feel drained of energy when we are around them. If we want to have vibrant energy we need to love our bodies. If we want to lose weight, tone up, or improve our bodies in any way we need to do so from a place of love not dislike. 

We are told over and over that we have to love ourselves but how do we do that? Usually the desire to change stems from some sort of dissatisfaction with the way things are right now. So, if you are not happy with how your body is now, how are you supposed to love and cherish it?

Woody Allen has a great quote – “When we lose twenty pounds... we may be losing the twenty best pounds we have! We may be losing the pounds that contain our genius, our humanity, our love and honesty.”

In an effort to save the best parts of you, here are ten FUN ways to learn to love your body.

1. Soak in a hot bath. After you dry off rub organic coconut oil into your skin all over your body.  Coconut oil is nutritious and good for you. Your skin will soak in the nutrients and feel moisturized and wonderful.

2. Put on your sexiest nightgown when you clean the house. You will turn a draining task into a sensuous, fun experience.

3. Go for a swim. Float in the water, feel your arms moving through the water, relax and let the water support you. Revel in your weightlessness.

4. Brush your teeth wearing nothing but high heels.

5. Stare at yourself in a full length mirror. Look yourself in the eye and in the voice of a Latin lover (I’m thinking Antonio Banderas) tell yourself how beautiful, sexy, and desirable you are.

6. Take a Zumba class. Zumba is Latin inspired dance. You will shake and shimmy while listening to great music. The best part is no one else in the class is any good except for the instructor so you can just laugh at your awkwardness and enjoy yourself.

7. Read Nora Ephron’s book I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. In a series of essays she takes an irreverent look at the things women find wrong with their bodies. With a laugh she helps you to lighten up and not take your body so seriously.

8. Learn to belly dance. A woman’s stomach can be one of the sexiest areas of her body. When you learn how to move sensuously and to focus on your power center you realize the strength and beauty in your body.

9. Meditate. Lay on your back, place your hand on your lower belly- take a deep inhalation and feel your hand move up and down. Enjoy the sensation of breathing. Appreciate the fact that your body breathes, your heart beats, your eyes blink, your lungs expand and you don’t have to do a thing to help.

10. Make a date with your best friend. Put on your favorite music, eat a delicious meal and spend time telling each other everything that is wonderful about the other.

Learning to love our bodies is vital to our health. Taking care of our health does not have to be a serious, glum task. Falling in love with our bodies can be just as easy as falling in love with a lover; you just have to make it FUN!