Please, LOVE Your Body
“Ugh, I hate my lower belly.”
The moment I heard that thought, I was tempted to look over my shoulder like, “Wait, who said that? I thought we were past this!” If you’re like me, thoughts like this pop into your head too - yes, even if you know how wonderful your body is, even if you are grateful for what it can do, even if you know you’re supposed to embrace body positivity. Even with all that, the messaging of diet and “wellness” culture can get in our heads and leave us thinking, “Wait, who said that?”
For years, I had a lot of hate for my lower belly. I wanted a hard, flat stomach, with cut lines at my hipbones. But the band of muscle that stretches across women’s lower bellies is meant to expand, to help make room for a growing baby. That’s literally what it is designed to do. My stomach wasn’t supposed to be flat and hard - it was supposed to expand, to create space for growth.
I’ve got these pockets on the outside of my thighs, which so often go by that terrible name (“saddlebags”). But guess what? My mom has these thighs. So does my grandmother. These are the hips and thighs that have carried the women in my family for generations - how lucky I am that I have them too!
I really hope that the younger generation of women growing up in the age of #bodypositivity will be able to have a different relationship with their bodies than I did, or many of the women I know. But when I ask you to love your body, I don’t mean post a bikini picture on Instagram, or look in the mirror and feel positive about every single thing you see.
There’s a quote from John Powell:
“Love is not a feeling to be felt, it’s an action to be learned.”
That’s what I mean when I say, “Love your body.” Not that you feel happy with how everything about your body looks (though if that is the case, amazing!) but that you treat your body with love. That you nourish it, listen to it, and care for it. Love isn’t a feeling at all - it’s an action. And that is a wonderful thing, because that means that by shifting your mindset and building new habits, you can learn to love your body - lower belly, outer thighs, and all.
