What Do You Like About Yourself?
It was the end of yoga class and we were in the traditional Savasana pose, laying on our backs, relaxing from our workout. As I was settling in, the instructor said, “Take a moment to thank your body and to think of something you like about it.”
The first request seemed doable, but the second made me uncomfortable. Somehow finding things I liked about myself seemed prideful, narcissistic, or just plain weird. It seemed much more normal and easier to be critical of my body. I was curious about my strong reaction.
Today, I stumbled upon an article on being genuine called Flying High with What’s Genuine
by Laurie-Beth Robbins. Within its wonderful stories and analogies, there was a section that reminded me of my reaction,
“The most irreverent component of my upbringing, however, was that my mother instilled within me a love of my God-given figure at any weight, stage, or age. This hideous and insidious “body hate” and negative self-talk that tragically plagues too many individuals in our nation today (particularly women) is a script I was never given.
And my mom was heavy!
“Sport mom” or not, she didn’t cover up in any shy or shameful way, nor exude any disdain for her physique. And she was persistent in teaching me not to either.
My mother was a journalist and intent on exercising her mental muscle, after all, and my father adored her in public and in private and told ANYBODY and EVERYBODY who would listen about his “brilliant and sexy baby!”
And so I never learned that having some cellulite on one’s thighs was equivalent to being “less than,” or that a climbing age equated to a deficit in one’s beauty.
Compared to the onslaught of concerns abounding today, I often wonder if I was raised backwards or by wolves. Indeed, everything I’d learned was NOT important would prove to be the most essential points of fixation en masse when I went out into the world.
What a PANIC people professed for the very things I’d been schooled were not genuine!”
Feeling unhappy or critical of ourselves can impact both men and women. This week, try finding things to love and appreciate about yourself. Consider all aspects; physical traits, strengths, values, and skills. You are AMAZING and AWESOME just as you are!!
