Learn to Love You Written By Kwavi Agbeyegbe

July 19, 2018

Learn to love you, when you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? If you’re like most women, your relationship with that reflective piece of glass is a tumultuous one

When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? If you’re like most women, your relationship with that reflective piece of glass is a tumultuous one. The voices in your head wage a battle of constructive critique and cruel comments – and the latter usually wins but it doesn’t have to be that way. Consider the following suggestions to help you along this positive journey to self-acceptance and appreciation.

Look at your body in a mirror and make a mental inventory of your positive qualities. Put all negative comments out of your mind. For those that are very persistent, find a way to reframe them. For example, if you think, “My thighs are so chunky; I hate them,” change your perception with an affirmation such as, “My thighs are muscular and strong; they power my body to run.”
Create a list of all the great things your body lets you do. Nothing is too small—from “walk up and down flights of stairs” to “carry my sleeping child to and from the car.” Put it on your mirror and review it regularly.

Stop letting your weight keep you from doing things you think you might enjoy! In many cases, the things we’re afraid to do because of negative self-image are actually the activities that would most help us achieve our fitness and weight loss goals.

Exercise regularly. Select something you truly enjoy, not the workout you think will burn the most calories or the latest fitness fad. Whatever your physical activity of choice, it should always generate at least two of the following: fun, fitness and friendship. This will make it easier to stick with.

Whenever you start to berate your body, remind yourself of how extraordinary it really is. It’s a finely tuned machine containing 60,000 miles of blood vessels and producing 25 million new cells every second. It produces enough heat in 30 minutes to boil a gallon of water, and its nerve impulses travel to and from the brain at speeds of up to 250 miles per hour.

Think about all the time you’ve spent berating your appearance throughout your life. Now imagine what you could have done with all those lost hours. You cannot turn back the clock, but you can resolve to stop wasting precious minutes of your existence and change your self-image for the better—and you can start today!