How do you feel about your body? Do you ever try to hide it? Have you ever wanted to stay home from a social event because of how you looked? Have you ever had difficulty concentrating on a task because you were so self-conscious about your appearance? Have you ever felt embarrassed to be you?
Welcome to planet earth!
Did you know that the beauty industry actually needs us to feel ugly, so we are motivated to buy their products? The fitness industry needs us to feel inadequate in order to buy their programs. The list goes on and on! Businesses profit off of your shame, inadequacy, and feelings of “not enoughness.”
We live in a body and beauty-obsessed world, which perpetuates the idea that true happiness, health, and the ability to be loved and accepted are dependent on how we look. This couldn’t be further from the truth!
Millions, if not billions of people on this planet are currently trying to change their body so they can finally be happy. They’re trying to make their body smaller, leaner, or somehow different so they can finally be at peace with themselves, and get the “shame monkey” off their backs. I promise you, a smaller body will never bring you peace. A chiseled six-pack won’t either. Happiness isn’t a perfect body, and the constant pursuit for happiness by trying to make your body look a certain way will most likely make you sick and miserable.
Most wait to be happy until they lose the weight or get the body they want. Then, once they lose the weight, they find something else to work on and another reason why they cannot be happy until _______ . It is a never ending, vicious, and miserable cycle.
The reason most humans do this is because they truly believe they have to dislike their body in order to be motivated enough to change it. They also believe that once their body looks a certain way their life will be much better (they won’t feel shame!) AND, most also believe that if they were to love and accept their body exactly how it was right now, they wouldn’t be able to change it, right?!
WRONG! This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Self-hatred is not the precursor to change. Self-hatred and body rejection is the precursor to misery.
THE ONLY WAY TO ACHIEVE HAPPINESS AND TRANSFORM YOUR BODY is to fully accept and love your body now and along the way. Self-acceptance is the precursor to change.
It is 100% possible to fully love and accept yourself as you are right now! To find happiness and contentment in the present moment, while simultaneously having goals, aspirations, and the desire to make positive changes.
The bottom line is that you do NOT have to dislike your body in order to change it. In fact, disliking your body is creating most of the “dis-ease” and dissatisfaction that you are trying to overcome. The goal is not to beat or force your body into submission, it is to love your body into transformation.
And, don’t ever lose sight of the fact that you are so much more than your body! The goal is to be happy with who YOU are, while working on who you want to become. 
