Body Conscious!

With the holiday season upon us, the prospect of squeezing ourselves into swimwear can be a little daunting. It is hard to ignore the fact that most of us feel body conscious at some point - especially if like me, your weight has fluctuated somewhat and you are not feeling as great about yourself as you once were.

Have a conversation with any woman and most of them will feel exactly the same - people who on the surface don't look like they would be worried and always seem really confident about themselves. No matter what our shape or size, most of us are worried about things that other people probably don't even notice.

In the book 'If Life is a Game, These are the Rules' by Chérie Carter-Scott, PhD, Rule one is 'You Will Receive a Body' and Chérie says how we are given a body which is ours for the duration of our lives, love it or hate it, accept it or reject it, it is the only one that we have got. We need to learn to turn it in to a beloved parter and lifelong ally.

Many of us moan about ourselves and just can't seem to accept ourselves as we are. We forget how much responsibility we have in the process both through changing what we are not happy with and making the decision to perceive ourselves differently. We have the choice to eat healthier, exercise and treat our bodies with the love and respect they deserve. After all, we do not perceive others with the same harsh critic as we do ourselves so why would they do the same to us.

We can go through our whole lives never being happy with ourselves and yet, our body is the only one we have so surely it is much healthier for our self esteem to learn to love ourselves more and start concentrating on all the other things that life has to offer?

We worry far more about ourselves than others do and notice things about ourselves that others don't even think about. Maybe it is time to take that self scrutiny and start looking at what is good about ourselves - our strength and health that we take so much for granted!

'Love all the parts of yourself, and if you can't love them, change them. If you can't change them, then accept them as they are'. - Chérie Carter-Scott PhD