What’s your favorite part of your body? What’s your favorite part of YOU? Is it your smile, or your sharp wit, or perhaps your big heart, or your prettily painted toenails? No matter which part of yourself you love, the key here is that you DO love that part of yourself! Congratulations!! Finding the parts of yourself that bring you joy, which make you feel confident and give you light in your life is so very important to nourishing your mind, body and soul with love.
On the other hand, we all (generally) have those parts of our bodies or our personalities we’d like to wish away. How often do you criticize yourself for that pesky extra weight? Or the way you never know the right thing to say? Or that you can’t stop crying when you’re sad (…..or happy)? Or the wrinkles around your eyes? When we put forth energy into self-critical and self-deprecating talk about ourselves, we are breeding negativity and we are fueling our shadow sides. Knowing your shadow side is even more important than knowing your lighter side, because when you can find that part of yourself who wants to hate areas of your body or personality, you can choose to disarm that negativity and replace it with loving care.
Loving all parts of ourselves takes practice. It takes recognizing the moment when we begin judging ourselves, and actively choosing to find a reason to love that part instead of hate it. Perhaps you don’t like that extra weight you’re carrying, but it also gives your child a wonderful lap to cuddle into. Not knowing the right thing to say means knowing that you are contemplative and conscientious, displaying great empathy. Crying is a sign of releasing trapped energy and emotions, so in crying, you are allowing your body to move more freely. And wrinkles around your eyes indicate the many years of laughter and love you’ve shared and poured into your life and the lives of others. You can choose to love these parts of yourself which make up your greater beautiful self.
Be sure to tell those shadow parts of your body or personality how much you love them. Infusing the energy of love into our body, mind and spirit brings more happiness and joy into our lives. We cultivate our mindset by understanding where we send our focus – and we can actively choose to send positivity over negativity.