Whether Valentine’s Day is marked with a big red heart in your diary, or perhaps its a date to avoid all public places and ostentatious shows of love, but whatever you are planning it is a time when thoughts inevitably begin to stray to the L-word.

LOVE

When we think about Love we tend to think of those people in our lives whom we Love.. family , friends, partners, pets..we may even profess a Love for a certain fragrance or handbag.

But what about Loving Yourself?

Where does that Love come on your list?

For many of the ladies we have meet at The Body Retreat or through our private work…Loving Yourself sounds very odd…perhaps even stupid, dirty, selfish etc etc

There can be many reasons for this, but one of the most common that we have encountered is that many women don’t like the body they are in.  They have learnt to not only dislike their body but to actively hate it.  So how can you begin to Love Yourself when you feel that such a big part of you is just wrong!!

And don’t get me wrong this has nothing to do with size, shape or weight.

This is about perception.

Wether you are a size 10 or a size 20 you can have an unhelpful perception about your own body which in turn clouds how you feel about yourself as a person, how you view your contribution in life, how you measure your success.

At The Body Retreat we are passionate that every woman should define herself and not be dictated by the number on the scales of in the back of her sweater…nor by the media who are relentless is showing us what “perfect” look like.

Nobody is perfect and no body is perfect either!!  Just recently while watching Big Brother (no judgement please!!) it was revealed that at the age of 40 Cameron Diaz was using a 19 year old bum double for a film she was in.   This sort of stuff is not at all helpful to how real women of the same age then view their bum… they are comparing it to a teenagers!!   This is just one small example of how woman are sent mixed and at times toxic messages about how they view the female form.

We say enough is enough.

It is time to reclaim LOVE for yourself.

Our Top Three Tips for beginning this journey to LOVE & Body Confidence

1. Go on a one month media fast.  Ditch the glossy magazines in particular. Stop accepting, even on a sub conscious level, that the images they portray are real.
2. Every day for one week stand in front of your mirror and pick one thing about your appearance you like and acknowledge this to yourself out loud.
3. Ask your best friend to tell you 3 things that they love about you.  Sometimes its just nice to hear what others love about you.. it can help to change your perception.

If you find any of the exercises tough to do or perhaps you feel a real resistance to the very concept of Loving Yourself..then don’t worry.  We may have just the solution.

This Valentines Weekend we have joined forces with Heart Your Body, Body Confidence Experts to run an amazing weekend retreat that is specially designed to help you to get over those first hurdles and begin your journey to true body confidence.  Learning more about what body confidence is and isn’t, beginning to nourish yourself from the inside out and begining  to reclaim your whole self.

We think that is worthy of a big red heart in any woman’s calendar.

If you have found this post helpful or interesting, then please share the love and forward to a friend or share on your chosen social media platform.