Be your own Beautiful: change your thoughts
The title of this blog is from a group I follow on Facebook and twitter called Goodbye my Muffintop. I stumbled across this group first on Twitter when they did some yoga in the park sessions by my work. I was a little sad because I had to work and couldn't join them but it truly looked like a fun time. I started following them on Twitter and Facebook to see what other events they had going on. I have found that it is always good to have support systems when you are making any changes in life or just even when you are living life, without support systems life can get a little lonely.
One of the things I took away from my few meetings with the girls from Goodbye my muffin top was how important it is to love yourself just as you are. It doesn't matter that you may want to lose weight, drop a dress size, have stretch marks or any other type of imperfection, it just matters that you love yourself as you are in that moment. You can still do what you need to improve yourself, but you need to love yourself, it makes making changes in your life that much easier.
I don't know why exactly that is, I just know that when I made a decision to know longer shame myself for the extra weight I had put on, losing that weight was easier. I think it's very much changing your mindset to a positive thought process so you don't focus on the negativity of our mids. You aren't focused on how "fat" your thighs look, or your "spare tire" around your midsection and when you aren't focused on those negative aspects but start looking at the things you love about your body you don't become so disappointed in not seeing immediate results.
It can take a lot to change your thinking, I mean an awful lot, it may amaze you how many negative thoughts you have about your body on a daily basis. I was pretty shocked when I did this strategy the first time, I didn't think I was as self-loathing as I was but I had a lot of hate for my body. And the worst part was a lot of the I had for my body does come down to genetics, things that I can't really change no matter how much I work out. So, following the suggestion to change my thought process first I heeded their advice and began to work on changing my thought process. How did I do this? Well it was easier than one might think. Using the rule of threes, I put an elastic band on my wrist and each time I had a negative thought about my body image I would snap the elastic band (bad thought) then I had to come up with three I love yous about my body to replace that thought.
I started off snapping that elastic band quite a lot, I wore an elastic band out, but after a few weeks ( 21 days to make a habit) I noticed I didn't snap it as often. Soon I was able to look myself in the mirror and admit that I was pretty great just the way I was, with no real self-loathing coming through.
I'm going to put the elastic band on again, not because I am having negative thoughts about myself and my body image, but because it is a slippery slope. This time I am going to snap the band each time I find myself comparing myself to someone else, positively or negatively. It doesn't matter what my friends look like in comparison to me, because my friends can't be me and I can't be my friends. None of my friends are my identical twin so we will never look exactly alike and that's ok, it's better than ok actually, it's wonderful, because we make up a whole lot of beauties by being uniquely us.
So to end off this post I am going to share three positive thoughts I have had about myself today.
1) I have great hair, it grows fast and is wonderfully thick, it looks great short and long, blond and dark, it is very versatile.
2) I love how tall I am, I never have difficulty grabbing things off the top shelf and I look great in heels.
3) I have a great smile and it's best that I wear it everyday!!
One of the things I took away from my few meetings with the girls from Goodbye my muffin top was how important it is to love yourself just as you are. It doesn't matter that you may want to lose weight, drop a dress size, have stretch marks or any other type of imperfection, it just matters that you love yourself as you are in that moment. You can still do what you need to improve yourself, but you need to love yourself, it makes making changes in your life that much easier.
I don't know why exactly that is, I just know that when I made a decision to know longer shame myself for the extra weight I had put on, losing that weight was easier. I think it's very much changing your mindset to a positive thought process so you don't focus on the negativity of our mids. You aren't focused on how "fat" your thighs look, or your "spare tire" around your midsection and when you aren't focused on those negative aspects but start looking at the things you love about your body you don't become so disappointed in not seeing immediate results.
It can take a lot to change your thinking, I mean an awful lot, it may amaze you how many negative thoughts you have about your body on a daily basis. I was pretty shocked when I did this strategy the first time, I didn't think I was as self-loathing as I was but I had a lot of hate for my body. And the worst part was a lot of the I had for my body does come down to genetics, things that I can't really change no matter how much I work out. So, following the suggestion to change my thought process first I heeded their advice and began to work on changing my thought process. How did I do this? Well it was easier than one might think. Using the rule of threes, I put an elastic band on my wrist and each time I had a negative thought about my body image I would snap the elastic band (bad thought) then I had to come up with three I love yous about my body to replace that thought.
I started off snapping that elastic band quite a lot, I wore an elastic band out, but after a few weeks ( 21 days to make a habit) I noticed I didn't snap it as often. Soon I was able to look myself in the mirror and admit that I was pretty great just the way I was, with no real self-loathing coming through.
I'm going to put the elastic band on again, not because I am having negative thoughts about myself and my body image, but because it is a slippery slope. This time I am going to snap the band each time I find myself comparing myself to someone else, positively or negatively. It doesn't matter what my friends look like in comparison to me, because my friends can't be me and I can't be my friends. None of my friends are my identical twin so we will never look exactly alike and that's ok, it's better than ok actually, it's wonderful, because we make up a whole lot of beauties by being uniquely us.
So to end off this post I am going to share three positive thoughts I have had about myself today.
1) I have great hair, it grows fast and is wonderfully thick, it looks great short and long, blond and dark, it is very versatile.
2) I love how tall I am, I never have difficulty grabbing things off the top shelf and I look great in heels.
3) I have a great smile and it's best that I wear it everyday!!
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