Body Acceptance: The Secret to Weight Loss Success

Can we love our bodies? As the years go by, each decade brings new and unexpected changes. We move from adolescence to young adulthood. For some, the transition is into motherhood. Most of us eventually enter into maturity and beyond. Our bodies are affected by stress, environment, sadness, and other emotions. Some bodies are affected by illness or disease. Other bodies are shaped by the after effects of emotional eating, starvation, or compulsive exercise. Is it possible to make peace and love our bodies?

For me, the road to loving my body began many years ago, decades ago. I stood one day, naked, in front of a full length closet mirror. Having summoned my courage, my intention was to look at my total body and say three simple words: "I love you." Trembling, I opened my eyes, and took a look at the image in the mirror. What was that image that reflected itself back at me? As if a foreign language, my mouth sounded out those three words. Want to know what happened? I began to bellow with laughter. A deep hilarious laugh that took me completely by surprise. The laugh released itself so spontaneously, it took me a moment to determine what had just happened. I was laughing at the absurdity of my statement. As the revelation of this truth flooded so suddenly, and unexpectedly, into my consciousness, I fell to the carpeted floor, naked, heaving tears from the depths of my misery. In that moment, I was awakened to my own self hatred.

So began a journey of enlightenment that in some ways continues to this day. This journey is the infinite unfolding and allowing of divine spirit to create a union with the self that I am - in this body and on this earth. Slowly, but with visible steadiness, I am becoming peace on earth.

MAKE YOUR HOUSE YOUR HOME

Where will learning to love your body lead you? It will lead you to the greatest experience you could ever imagine. As Whitney Houston once sang in her hit song "Greatest Love of All." "Learning to love yourself, It is the greatest love of all."

The experience is the joy of a body and mind in unity with each other. It will lead to self-esteem, self-value, and self-worth. Many of us accept that we are not our bodies and that when we die, the body remains on earth while who we are continues on. This may be true, and herein lies the paradox. You are not your body and yet while on earth you are your body. Both sides of this statement are true simultaneously. In this earth realm, the body needs you and you need the body. The body serves you and you also serve the body.

My partner Ray and I recently built a new home. Even though we designed the home and picked out every tile and paint color, when we moved in, the house was an amazingly beautiful house but not yet a home. It felt like an empty structure, with no individual identity. Each day we would walk through the entire house, touching it, tending to it, imaging how we might bring it to life. We'd shop, arrange, rearrange, and return items. As the days went by, we cleaned our house, vacuumed the rugs, learned the details of the house, hung pictures and moved furniture. In many ways, a house will tell you how it wishes to be decorated. Sure, it's all your stuff and your preferences, but the house itself tells you where the plants will grow, how to create flow, which walls need which pictures, and how the furniture should be placed. The house tells you which furniture it will or will not accept.

As the house soaked up our energies, it started to breathe and come to life. It was like an infusion of energetic life blood that flowed through the house - not all at once, but room by room. Then the rooms began to unite as it came together into a home. The house opened up and emitted a presence of feeling peaceful, loving, inviting, fun, beautiful, comfortable, and safe. New energy filled the space, waking up what was once just a structure. The house sought harmony with us. This house wanted us here as much as we wanted to be here. The more loving creativity we shared with our house, the more our house became our home. This home now breathes with us, lives with us, reflects our values, beliefs, and energy. Our home continues to evolve, expand, flow. Even in a new home, it remains important to clear the clutter and allow the creative energy to flow. The house reflects who we are and continues to evolve with us. All of this happens with patience and time - from the inside out.

MAKE YOUR BODY YOUR TEMPLE

And so it is with your body. You are given a body and it is beautiful. Each day, each moment, it soaks up your energy and harmonizes with who you are. Your body wishes to be filled with your smoothly moving life force. Your body wishes to be the creative and ever expanding expression of your joy, your dancing, your ideas. Your body wishes to flow with your life force limb by limb until the limbs and neck and trunk and head become united into one. The flow wishes to be unobstructed, uncluttered, and continually evolving. Your body does not want to be a separate object ordered about by your vicious commands, or blamed for your perceived failings. Your body is the home you live in for your entire journey on earth. It is up to you to realize this symbiosis and create harmony. It is up to you to allow your body to come to life as your temple. Unite as partners. Work together with your body to create a temple as you might work with a house to create a home.

Imagine everything that you bring into your body: Thoughts, beliefs, food and other substances, supportive energy of others and from yourself, emotions, and feelings. Everything you bring into your body must live there in some form or fashion. Now imagine your body in this present moment. Is it filled with a continuous flow of self-loving thoughts, supportive beliefs, laughter, the energy of love and trust, food that feels good both in the moment and beyond, and a connection to Self, God/Goddess and earth? Can you imagine how this body would become a temple?

Let's entertain the idea that you're not quite at the temple stage yet. How do you unite as a partner with your body? First, accept everything about your body in this moment. Since your body is always in interdependence with you, it is always a reflection of what you believe about yourself on the inside. Your body reflects on the outside what is going on in the inside.

Perhaps your body has been filled with dark thoughts, sadness, depression, anger, and fear. Perhaps it is filled with beliefs that you are a bad person, unworthy and unlovable? Or maybe it is filled with beliefs that you should not be so powerful, unique, creative, or expressive. Because of these beliefs, maybe you've attempted to feel better through too much or too little food, drugs, sex, busyness, or other addictions. There is nothing inherently wrong with this scenario. But you can imagine that if this body was a house, eventually, it would require some major repairs, cleaning, reorganizing, and upkeep. The house (body) does not have to be hated for looking the way it does. Nor does it deserve to be blamed for its condition. It is not the enemy. It is merely a reflection and therefore would as easily reflect something new all together. The body is always in relationship with our beliefs.

To partner with our body, we begin with acceptance and love. Old unsupportive thoughts can be gently let go and new supportive thoughts and beliefs can be brought in. The thoughts brought into the body will live there. If you listen to your body, it will tell you if those thoughts fit. How will it tell you? Though your emotions. Your emotions are the guidance system that can direct you back into the flow of love. If the thoughts feel good, then energy continues to flow in new and exciting ways. If the thoughts feel bad, they tend to clump together and are stored away in the body like clutter in the closets.

The food we bring into the body also becomes part of the body itself. If you listen to your body, it will tell you if those foods fit. Just like a house will tell you what furniture belongs and doesn't belong and where the plants or pictures should be placed, the body can tell you which foods, thoughts, beliefs, energy, and foods belong. The ones that feel good (now and later) fit. The ones that don't feel good, you simply don't have to choose.

Turning your body into your temple may well be a process and an undertaking. But it is what each of us seeks. We seek joy and feeling good on earth. It is our responsibility and life journey to give ourselves what we seek. We seek to be in alignment with our purpose. Our purpose is joy. Life can be as wonderful or as horrible as we allow it to be. It all depends on the thoughts we practice. Learn to be in alignment with thinking the thoughts that feel good inside our physical bodies. Thinking thoughts that bring pleasure. Let our minds not wander though darkened corridors away from light's center. Each of us must make it our priority to look for what feels good, to seek out what resonates with joy within our bodies. We each must ask: "How much do I practice thoughts that bring me joy, and how much do I practice thoughts that bring me pain?"

Dr. Annette Colby, RD
Nutrition Therapist & Master Energy Healer
For free inspirational newsletter, articles & info visit:
http://www.LovingMiracles.com
972.985.8750
"Opening Creative Portals to Success"

---

Never Jump to Conclusions

Human mind which is well known as a fluctuating prodigy presumes itself to be a great judge. It is so natural for the mind to judge anything that appears to it especially so... Read More

The Art of Giving

In the pursuit of the life we dream of, this journey we are on for successful living, the focus is usually on figuring out what it is exactly that we want and then... Read More

TIES that BIND

I have no idea how it started or who launched it. Nevertheless years after all of the women in my family died (they were the initiators of all of our major family events... Read More

All Is Going Well?

The true test in life does not occur when all is going well. The true test takes place when we are faced with challenges. Some people have a positive attitude towards life only... Read More

Resistance to Change

All of us are resistant to change, whether it's in using a different tool, a technique a choice in partners, or lifestyle.The ones that resist the most have big labels like, orthodox, traditionalist,... Read More

My name is Smarty Jones -- Embracing Gods Glory

Our deepest fear us not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us?..We are born to... Read More

Just Say, I Love You to Those Who are...

Life is beautiful and lovable with the type of people we have around us. We talk about unconditional love, what is that? The way we love GOD?is unconditional love. Loving a person without... Read More

Hope in Humanity

Let us renew our hope in humanity. It's so easy to lose faith when someone cuts us off on the highway, when a 'friend' blows us off (for the second time) and fails... Read More

Small Steps, Great Strides

Sacred space, sacred timeBelieve in your personal power, retrieve if lostExplore, enhance creativity to allow flow of positive energyDon't get stuck in a rut, seek out a form of support systemAssess, evaluate your... Read More

Practice Being Like a Child

Remember the master teacher once said 2000 years ago, "Unless you can become like little children, your chances are zero, you haven't got a prayer." A major consideration for adults.Be like children and... Read More

Number that Decides Your Success

God has created human beings to live successfully. He has no discrimination in this regard.At the same time he has also created certain resources to live successfully.Of these "number" is the one resource.It... Read More

Increase Awareness With One Simple Question

There are many ways we can increase our own personal awareness about our life and what we want to make out of it. Yet, we seldom ask the question, "Why am I doing... Read More

Game-Set-Match

Direct Answers - Column for the week of July 21, 2003I don't know whether to call it jealousy or insecurity. My husband and I have been married almost 30 years. Last year at... Read More

How Four Words Can Enhance Your Life Of Prayer (Pray More In My Hectic Day? You Cant Be Serious)

"I would like to pray more. But ... how to find the time?"Does that sentiment ring true with you?If you answered "Yes", then keep reading.I have one of those simple, easy-to-implement ideas that... Read More

Maybe Im Amazed at the Way you Love Me all the Time

In Corrogue I am amazedI rise by the light of heaven to continue this amazing journey into love. There is no other journey quite like this. All of us are on this journey.... Read More

Nine Things More Important than Capital

When starting any enterprise or business, whether it is full-time or part-time, we all know the value of having plenty of capital (money). But I bet we both know or at least have... Read More

How To Weather Lifes Inevitable Storms

In the Northeast, we have a few months to prepare for winter by gathering firewood, securing windows and doors, and getting furnaces cleaned. As with any change, there is always a period of... Read More

The Inspiration Factor

The first thing that an aspiring leader must realize is that they must be inspiring! That is, they must be capable of, and willing to inspire people on to greater things than if... Read More

A Word Fitly Spoken ~ Believe

A Word Fitly SpokenA word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Proverbs 25:11Under All that We Think, Lives All We Believe, Like the Ultimate Veil of Our Spirits.... Read More

Anam Chara - Healing the Heart Matters

Are you prepared to make your heart matter? Are you prepared to feel whole, happy and healed of any heartache?It does not surprise me our hearts are not whole (the root meaning of... Read More

Top 10 Things That Make Life Worthwhile

Below are some of the things that, over the years, my clients have taught me about making life a wonderful adventure. You will, hopefully, have additions that uniquely enrich your life, and I... Read More

Vistas

The other day I found myself frustrated with the slow progress on my new project. Other people involved, subcontractors, just 'weren't getting it'. Why couldn't they just see what needed to be done... Read More

Experiences in My Life Prompted Me to Never Give Up

Many people think that their life is a disaster that for some reason they cannot go on, they allow depression to creep in and continually give themselves negative bio-feedback. But you can over... Read More

The Fighting Father

This man is an Anglican priest but with a difference. You would not want to offend him put it that way. His online ministry helps to serve the community of street youth homeless/drug-addicted/criminal... Read More

Aim High

Change is difficult for many people. Often times our whole identity is wrapped up in what we've learned as children will work for us when dealing with people, allowing us to survive, thrive... Read More

I Dont Like This

You always do this wrong, how many times would I have to tell as to how to do the thing right, don't you understand to what I say, I am talking to you,... Read More

Facing the Enemies Within

We are not born with courage, but neither are we born with fear. Maybe some of our fears are brought on by your own experiences, by what someone has told you, by what... Read More

Listening to Your Heart!

Trying to predict stock price movements is necessary, of course. After all, when stock prices fall, the cost of borrowing and of issuing new equity can rise, and falling stock prices can both... Read More

Opening Hearts is as Easy as Opening a Window

Two-year-old Owen goes to speech therapy twice a week. The therapist's office is small and gloomy. There is one large window, but the shade is always down and very little light comes through.... Read More