Recognize your Beauty

I once taught a class to a group of women at a mother- daughter camp retreat, as a little exercise, I did a "circle" of self love. I instructed each women to say her name, one thing she loved about herself, and toss the ball to another woman in the circle to do the same. The daughters did ok, however, whenever it came to a mother she would say how she loved how her children were so smart, or she loved that she was a good mother... I finally had to stop the exercise and correct these mothers, as getting them to explicitly name something they loved about themselves, particularly a physical attribute, was nearly impossible. 

Does this sound familiar? 

Whenever I begin working with a client, and I work largely with women who have busy schedules (check out my 45  min consult, I come into to your house via phone or computer :)), I look at her body carefully. I love to see all the great attributes she has a woman, and how we can begin to design and accentuate those positive parts. We all have them, no matter what. And if we spend more time looking at those, and less time telling ourselves about the "lesser" parts, we halt contiuum of self deprecating behavior, which makes it easier  to make positive changes.  

Another thing I talk to all new and prospective clients about when we begin a program, is time. All change takes time, a lot of time. How much? I can't answer, some of it depends on how wired automatic behavioral patterns have become which we must begin to break. Just like we work to correct movement  patterns in the body, which over time, will preclude wear and tear injury,  we can reverse thought patterns in our brain which do exactly the same thing to our psyche.

My goal is always to begin with outside, and let it seep into to everything. We take very calculated steps towards reversing eating, movement, and self care patterns, which then begin to effect how we view ourselves. As we begin to make these changes, we start to view all the good things about ourselves, all the pretty parts of our bodies, leading us to see all the attributes we have to give to others.

You see as we focus on the negative we are actually asking for more of it, it's a vicious cycle. Have you ever felt so frustrated with yourself over not losing weight, or not seeing a flatter belly, it has driven you to say " forget it!" and go raid the cookie jar? Yep, this is that pattern of negative thinking. And guess what guys, it not only hurts you, it begins to hurt all the people around you.  And you become a person you don't like very much. There are measured ways to reverse this. And as a Behavioral Change Specialist, I also help you find the tools to do it on your own, so you eventually you don't need someone like me. 

Ladies, we must be good to ourselves, as the flight attendants always say -make sure your mask is in place before you adjust that of the child's.

Have an awesome week!!!

Anna