Each year in February, the lead up to Valentine’s Day leaves me a little befuddled.
As a health and wellness coach, I have lots of tools to teach my clients how to incorporate healthy habits into their lives and how to make real food eating easier. I know a ton about how to heal your gut and why that’s important. And I know how to support my clients in developing healthier relationships with food.
All of these things contribute to a healthy lifestyle.
But want to know a secret?
It might sound harsh, but it’s true. Relationships and connection play such an important role in how we view the world, how we view ourselves, our mental health, our physical health, and how we want to show up for ourselves.
In fact, researchers have discovered that one of the handful of pillars in the Blue Zones, the places in the world that have the densest population of centenarians (people that live to be 100+), is their daily connection with their community. These cultures make get togethers and dinners a ritual that is long, slow, deep, meaningful, and happens daily. They are constantly connecting with their people, which does so much for their health and longevity.
But how can we show up and love others when we struggle with loving ourselves?
With Valentine’s Day approaching, and the subsequent excitement or dread you might be experiencing, I thought I would change the narrative a little. Instead of being consumed with how you are going to show your loved one how much they mean to you, or feeling disappointed and left-out because you don’t have a significant other, how about focusing on loving yourself?
And once we have really focused on loving ourselves, and if we have space to do so, how about we show our love and appreciation for one other person that makes us feel valued.
Focusing on loving ourselves first (body, strengths, and imperfections) and others second, just might lead us to a healthier body and mind, and most definitely more love.
This week on Instagram I have been doing a “Love Your Body” challenge, and I’d love for you to join. It’s a way to quiet the negative narrative you might replay in your mind about you and your body, and do things to nourish and uplift it.
Couldn’t all of our bodies use a little more love?
Show Your Mind Some Love~
Let’s start right at the top of our body with our brain. It’s important that we nurture it and keep it active every day so that it continues to work properly. There are also lot’s of real foods to consume to help keep it firing.
Here are a couple of tips to show your brain some love~
Show Your Gut Some Love~
Ok, you know by now I’m REALLY into the gut and how it can improve nearly every system in our body. So let’s show it some love. And let’s not just focus on the gut on the inside. Let’s dig a little deeper and love the gut on the outside; our stomach, specifically.
This area of the body can hold so much baggage. It tends to be the place that holds extra weight, thus making it an area that many are most self conscious of when looking in the mirror.
But if we think about all of the remarkable things our stomach and gut do for us, from absorb nutrients, provide us with energy, and for some even grow babies, it’s pretty incredible.
Let’s show it some love! Here is how~
Show Your Heart Some Love~
The heart is pretty incredible, right? Not only does it pump blood through your body, circulate hormones through your system, and maintain your blood pressure, it also gently guides us through our lives when we listen to it.
Here are a a few tips to show your heart some love-
Show Your Imperfections Some Love~
Ok, this one is hard. But I truly believe our imperfections teach us things, help us grow, and add spice and color to our lives.
Let me share a couple of mine…
Over the last handful of years I’ve grown more and more self conscious in social settings. I love seeing people and being social, but I find that I often get tongue tied and forget common, every day verbiage. It drives me crazy! I’ve grown more and more self conscious of it, beating myself up about it after an outing with others.
I realized that getting down on myself won’t help me. Instead, I have worked really hard over the last year to change my go-to de-stressor to reading. It used to be plopping down in front of the TV or scrolling through social media at the end of a hard day, but slowly I’ve started making changes, and now I long for a book to read after a long work day. I also have started learning Spanish this year, just to keep my brain juices pumping even more.
Is this a fool proof plan to improve my cognition? No, but I believe it could help, so I’m giving it a shot.
Another imperfection of mine is something physical. My teeth have become more and more crooked over the years and I’m pretty self conscious about it. It might be something I change in the future, but for now I’m doing my best to change the narrative. I look for the things I love about my teeth, and when I need it, I remind myself of the compliments or sweet things my friends have pointed out about them when I have opened up about disliking them.
So, what are a few imperfections of yours, physical or not? Write them down and sit with them for a second. How can you use those “imperfections” as learning experiences, or how can they help you grow? What’s one step you can start taking today to change the narrative or work on them?
I sincerely hope that my Love Your Body Challenge this week helps you to focus on showing your body more love. Whether you focus on loving the physical attributes or the person you are deep down, loving yourself and doing things daily to nurture that love is so important.
The truth is, if you don’t love yourself, it makes it pretty hard for others to. Take the time, focus on self-love, and I can assure you it will only multiply the love in your life.
XOXO,
Kelsey