When I began to tap into loving my body and myself more than ever before, I was scared of all kinds of crazy s**t.

I was terrified that loving my body meant not taking care of it. I thought that once I loved myself, I’d end up drinking too much, eating too much and not worrying about my health at all. I was scared that loving my body meant letting go of all thoughts about movement, mindfulness and compassion for my body and myself.

In short, I believed that loving my body meant either totally neglecting it or completely obsessing over it.

Luckily, I began to see that neither of those beliefs were healthy and had nothing to do with true body-love or self-love.

Unfortunately, I see the same fears and thoughts in my coaching clients and friends. There’s a big anxiety and worry that once you truly accept yourself, you won’t take care of yourself and you’ll lose control over food, your body and yourself.

I understand that fear, I do.

I understand the belief that if you stop hating upon yourself and criticising your body, you’ll end up not caring anymore. I understand that you’re afraid that giving up your insane obsession with food and your body might lead to running havoc and losing yourself.

I understand, but it’s not true.

It’s not real.

The truth is that if you truly love your body and yourself, you’ll want to take care of it. You’ll want to spoil it with massages, facials (I had one these week and I haven’t felt that clean and yum in months!), movement and deliciously healthy food. You’ll want to be good to yourself and treat yourself like the queen you are. You’ll want to make an effort because you’ll know you’re worth it.

Yet, at the beginning, that’s hard to believe.

That’s why today, we’ll talk about 3 common newbie body-love beliefs that’ll lead you down the road to self-hatred and self-loathing. I’ll show you how to detect them and how you can easily turn them around.

1. You sit on your bum all day long or force your body to do exercise it hates and makes you feel like gaging.

While I’m all for relaxing and spending time on the couch, you won’t love your body until you give it the joy of movement. Your body loves to move, yes it does! The more you move in your daily life the more connected you’ll feel with your body. However, your body hates to be forced into movement it doesn’t enjoy. So, drop running on the treadmill for four hours while losing your mind.

The turnaround: This is easy, right? Sign-up for a Zumba class or watch Yoga videos on Youtube. The possibilities for movement in your life are endless. You’ll find that there are forms of movement you love. Maybe it’s hiking, maybe Body-Step or even weight-lifting. Finding movement that stretches your body will help you feel more energetic, more relaxed and more aligned. And you can start today.

2. You trap yourself in the dieting hell and believe that body-love will happen only once you loose 20, 30, 40 more pounds.

I promise you that you won’t love your body any more if you lose 20, 30 or even 80 pounds. Why? Because your mind won’t change and your self-perception won’t magically transform either. Body-love starts right here and right now.

You don’t need to fix anything, you’re whole already. By fighting your natural hunger, you’re creating more pressure and sickness inside. You think about food all day long and begin the cycle of starving and binging for the thousandth time.

The turnaround: Admit to yourself that dieting doesn’t work. Stop dieting today and whenever you feel the pull of a new diet, recite this lesson from a course in miracles: You are not your body. You are free.

3. You value other people’s opinion about your body more than your own.

You constantly worry how other people perceive your body and you ask them for their opinion all the time.

Whoa. This is self-denial on the highest level and a big old NO NO NO. Only YOU decide what you call beautiful and only you decide what you’ll do with your body. Your opinion matters. Others will be happy to see you shine.

The turnaround: Stop asking other people if you need to loose weight, look good and such things and slowly start relying on your own taste, values and feelings again.

Remember that you are whole already and that you are capable of loving yourself. It’s already there, you just have to believe. 🙂

On to you: which fears and misconceptions do you have about loving yourself and your body? I’d love to hear your thoughts. xxx