Self-love is a powerful journey. It involves embracing every part of ourselves, including our bodies. Body acceptance is essential for nurturing a positive mindset.
This article explores the art of self-love and shares practical tips on how to accept your body. By understanding the connection between our emotions and physical health, we can foster a deeper appreciation for ourselves.
Let’s dive into the transformative practices that encourage body acceptance and self-love.
Giving yourself an abdominal massage is an act of self-love. I’ve probably done close to 7,000 abdominal massages over the years, and I find that every single belly is absolutely beautiful, unique, and has a story to tell.
When I massage a wrinkled sun-spotted hand, I think about how many tears those hands have wiped dry, flowers they have planted, hands they have tenderly held, meals they have prepared. When I massage my arms, I think of how they have embraced and comforted those in need. And with bellies, I think about the sweet life that grew inside or the sadness and heartache held within.
Just for a moment, think about the history your body has experienced. What is the first thing that comes to mind? I remember years ago, during my Arvigo training, Dr. Rosita Arvigo was working on my “cement post” during an abdominal massage. The cement post is the area between your xiphoid process and navel, also known as the solar plexus. It’s the area where you get that sinking feeling when something shocking or hurtful happens. Well, when emotions aren’t processed, this area can feel hard, like a cement post. As Rosita massaged this area on me, a memory from my childhood came up.
An image of two boys in a stairwell, and they were laughing at me and calling me stupid. I felt ashamed and belittled. I don’t ever recall having this memory before; it just popped up when Rosita was massaging my belly. Rosita asked if I was okay. I wasn’t crying or anything, but in her loving way, she nodded her head, knowing something old and painful was moving out. When emotions come up during a session, I tell my clients what Rosita told me, “Just observe the energy/feeling/emotion, not trying to figure it out, just watch and feel. Observe it as you would a train going by. You can see how fast it’s going and what color it is, but you don’t have to get on the train, and no one has to get off. Just allow it to go by.”
The Art of Self-Love
The interesting thing is, feeling stupid was a recurring feeling I had experienced most of my life. I felt insecure about my intelligence even though I did well in school. I know I have been ignorant about many things in life, and I’m hyper-aware when people have recognized my naiveté. I’ve registered and stored every eye roll or condescending laugh as a confirmation that I’m not good enough, smart enough, or lovable. I think the memory that came up that day was an accumulation of over 35 years of all those moments. This belief that I was stupid affected how I carried my body, the life choices I made, and how I acted in social situations.
Abdominal massage has been my path to self-love and body acceptance. Abdominal massage helped me process and move out those old emotional charges. Restorative Exercise helped me as well; read about my experience here. I feel freer in my body and more confident now.
From body acceptance to body appreciation
Now think about how amazing your body is, physiologically speaking. Really think about how hard your body is working for you. All the biochemical reactions, biofeedback systems, cellular regeneration, waste elimination, PH balancing, attacking foreign invaders, and delivering oxygen and nutrients to every signal cell in the body. The liver alone has over 500 known biological functions! It’s not just for processing alcohol. 🙂 The body is beautifully designed and is performing an exquisite symphony of biochemical reactions to maintain balance within. Billions of communications and reactions every second as you sit on the couch watching back-to-back episodes of Untold Stories of the ER. I love that show! Instead of sitting on the couch, I lie on the floor in a psoas release or spinal twist while watching it because I love my internal organs.
Body acceptance starts with body understanding. Pain and dysfunction are often healthy responses to unhealthy situations.
Often, a physical “problem” is a healthy response to an unhealthy situation. The most rewarding part of my job is when I see someone accept and appreciate the wisdom of their physical body. Abdominal massage allows you to connect to your body’s wisdom. Many people who come in for treatments are angry at their body for causing them pain, fertility challenges, or for basically “not working correctly”. Rude, insensitive people aren’t the only ones who can impact you physically and emotionally with harsh words. Take a look at the messages you’re sending to your own body throughout the day. Take the time to smile down in gratitude to your liver, uterus, or heart. Feel that smiling energy warm your entire body, and then listen as you would listen to a good friend.
Body acceptance books: This book helped me learn how to process the emotions that were held in my body. Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
“Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering,” says Tara Brach at the start of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and conflicts in our relationships, addictions and perfectionism, loneliness, and overwork–all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled. Radical Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance developed over Dr. Brach’s twenty years of work with therapy clients and Buddhist students. (Description from the book)
This is another excellent book that demonstrates how emotions and the physical body are entwined.
Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine
Her pioneering research on how the chemicals inside our bodies form a dynamic information network, linking mind and body, is not only provocative but also revolutionary. By establishing the biomolecular basis for our emotions and explaining these new scientific developments in a clear and accessible way, Pert empowers us to understand ourselves, our feelings, and the connection between our minds and our bodies — body-minds — in ways we could never possibly have imagined before. Molecules of Emotion is a landmark work, full of insight and wisdom and possessing that rare power to change the way we see the world and ourselves.”
And When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection
In the Womb Care & Free The Belly online courses I teach you how to work with the energy of emotional charges held in the belly as well as how to do self-abdominal massage, restorative exercise, and more. I also have a Make Shift Happen, Constipation Cure course for better bowel movements and an Abdominal Massage Mini Course for Professional Massage Therapists.
You may also like this body acceptance post:
Embracing the Wisdom of Menopause
Author: Barbara Horsley has more than 26 years of experience as a licensed massage therapist. She specializes in abdominal massage and Visceral Manipulation™ and is an NCBTMB-approved educator. In addition to being certified in abdominal massage, she also studied biomechanics and restorative exercise. She is also a Certified Women’s Herbal Educator and a graduate of the IWHI Perimenopause & Menopause Certificate Program.