Love Your Body

Your body is amazing! Think about it: it carries you through life, it wakes up every morning, converts food into energy; for most of us it walks, talks, hugs and breathes too. Every second there are a gazillion little things going on inside of you. Whether your body looks like the images in glossy magazines, or far from it, it’s more advanced than the most cutting edge computer, and it’s your permanent address here on earth.

Body Positive
To us, Body Positive means loving the body you’re in, today. Don’t put your life on hold while waiting for that “perfect body” to appear. Your perceived version of perfect might not ever come, so live today, and love your body for what it is and does today.

Body Image vs Body Love
Everybody I know suffers from a poor body image every once in a while. I go into full panic mode ahead of every photo shoot, and cringe the first 100 times I look through our portfolio. Yet here I am preaching love. Does that seem contradictory? If you separate body image from body love, and start treating love as an action instead of a feeling, it gets a lot easier. You don’t have to love your reflection every time you walk past a mirror, but you should try to love your body. That will make you feel amazing!

Love is an Action

This is true for so many aspects of life, not just loving your body. Imagine that you’re in a bad relationship. Your mind knows you’d be better off apart but you love your partner, and your other half keeps insisting that they love you, where in reality you’re only feeling a feeling, not actually loving yourselves or each other through actions. Is that really love? (Adding for clarity: the above example is for really terrible relationships, not just bad days in good ones. Think domestic abuse, Lifetime movies bad.)

If you have kids, look at your children. If you’re not a parent, think of your own relationship with your parents, or look at parents around you. Is parental love just a feeling too, or does it mean that you love your offspring through actions even when they’ve tried your temper a gazillion times?

Now try applying the same logic to your relationship with your body. Is love just being happy with your reflection, or does it run deeper? And are you in control?

 
How to love your body
Love your body the way a mother loves her child. Respect it for what it is, appreciate it for what it accomplishes, feed it well and keep it active. Also, don’t forget to have fun together!

By actively loving your body, you’re already half way to feeling love for it. Don’t stress if that feeling doesn’t come immediately. In the long run it’s the actions, not the feelings that count.

xx
Linn