Stop Hating Your Body with these 3 Reminders
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I know when we are embraced int he holiday season, eating all the treats, drinking more holiday cocktails, and a little bit more out of our routine than we usually are, it’s common for insecure thoughts about our body to arise.
When these thoughts of insecurity arise, it takes away from us experiencing our lives to the fullest. All we can concentrate on is what our body does and doesn’t look like and the deprivation and punishment we need to give to our body. This is no way to spend the holidays, and NO WAY to live your life whether or not it is the holidays.
That’s why in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I want to share a new way to look at your body that will help you see your body in a new light.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, Hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real, let's get it. Let's go.
Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. I am really excited about today's episode, three reminders to help you stop hating your body. I don't know about you, but when I'm in the holiday season, I'm eating all the treats. I'm drinking the holiday cocktails, I'm a little bit out of my normal routine. It can feel common for me to have insecure thoughts about my body arise. And when those thoughts of insecurity come up, it can truly take away from experiencing everything that I'm living, to the fullest. Like when we are concentrated on what our body does and doesn't look like, and then we start to deprive our body, or we start to punish our body. I.
Don't know about you, but that's truly no way to spend the holidays. It's no way to spend our life. So that's why in today's bonus episode, I'm going to help you share a new way to look at get your body that will help you see your body in a new light. But before I do, I wanted to share the super sweet review. It comes from [Jemmasmom03 00:01:28]. She says, "Incredible. This podcast pulled me out of my dark place. I started with the 10 ways to win my day and I implemented so many of Julie's suggestions and I'm on a great path, now." I love that so much. Thank you for your review. I'm actually going to go ahead and link that in the show notes below, 10 Ways to Win Your Day, Every Day. And these are just things that I do every single day that help me set myself up for success. Thank you. Jemmasmom03 for your review. I appreciate you so much.
Okay. So let's dive into this episode. So if you are struggling to accept, love and embrace your body, here's what I want to share with you today.
Your body is the only place that you get to live in. You don't get another body. This is it. So if this is the only body that you get, is it worth living your entire life, hating it? Is it worth living your entire life, failing to embrace it and love it? Is it worth living your entire life, wishing it were anything other than what it is? If this is the only body that you get, is it worth depriving it? Is it worth punishing? Is it worth obsessing over it being different or allowing it to hold you back from fully enjoying your life? If this is the only body that you get, shouldn't you love it. Shouldn't you take care of it and shouldn't you respect it? Again, you only get one body and you only get one life. Your body doesn't deserve to constantly be deprived and punished and your life doesn't deserve to constantly be controlled by your lack of self appreciation for who you are and what God created you to be.
Your body deserves for it to be nourished, for it, to be respected, for it to be given rest, for it to be given movement, for it to be spoken to nicely and for it to be treated like it's loved. So remember these three things, next time you're struggling to love and embrace body.
Number one, God gave you this body. He selected this body specifically for you to question your body is to question God's creation. Psalm 139:14 says, "For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you friend, fearfully and wonderfully made." I actually was just reading this in my Bible in 365 and the commentary that went along with this scripture was so incredible, so I wanted to read it to you. It says, "God's character goes into the creation of every person." Think about that. "God's character goes into the creation of every person." When you feel worthless or even begin to hate yourself, remember that God's spirit is ready and willing to work within you. We should have as much respect for ourselves as our maker has for us. Let me say that again. We should have as much respect for ourself as our maker has for us.
Reminder number two, your body does so much for you. We need to stop for focusing on what our body looks like and instead, focus on all the amazing things that our body allows us to do. It carries us through our day. It allows us to do the things that we love. It allows us to take a breath and stand on this earth and without it, we wouldn't be here today. Without our body. We wouldn't be who we were created to be.
And number three, at the end of your life, you're not going to be concerned about what your body looks like. You're going to be concerned about the experiences that you had in your body. So don't waste the time that you have in your body on hating it. Instead, I want you to focus on having the best experience in your body.
So the next time that you speak negatively about your body or the next time you go to deprive it or punish it, or the next time that you wish your body were different, please remember these things. Remember that this is the only body that you get. No amount of wishing, depriving, punishing or hating will give you a different body. This is it, so love it, take care of it, nourish it, embrace it.
I actually was reading Beauty by the Book by Nancy Stafford and I loved this chapter and it really talked about this topic. And so I just wanted to read it verbatim to you because this chapter literally just stuck out to me so much and it spoke to me in such a profound way.
So it says, "Abounding in thanks giving, he fills me with thankfulness. As you receive Christ, Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7 "In two-headed Woman, Lucille Clifton had some pretty amazing things to say about hips. These hips are big hips. They don't like to be held back. These hips have never been enslaved. They go where they want to go. They do what they want to do. These hips are mighty hips. These hips are magic hips." Wow. Is that the way that you feel about your hips? What about your arms? Do you embrace and accept the beauty and the power of your body with gratitude and thanks giving? No? Let's change that. Let's start to change the way that we think and talk about ourselves. We've been changed. We've put off the old stuff.
As the living Bible puts it, "We're living a brand new kind of life that is continually learning more and more of what is right." That's Colossians 3:10. Jesus is showing us more and more of who he is and who we are. Let's let him change our thinking too. We mustn't underestimate the importance of our thought and how we view ourselves. That's why Paul wrote this down in a reminder. "Whatever is true. Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Philippians 4:8. No, I'm not advocating for some new age philosophy of positive thinking or self realization. No superficial, "You are great," affirmations in the morning. But I do believe that if we think of ourselves as fat, ugly, hopeless, so why bother, we condemn our bodies with our words in our disappointment and our disdain. We can't help, but treat our bodies disrespectfully and our words become self-fulfilling prophecies.
But when we view ourselves, including our bodies, with love and acceptance, when we have a healthy view of the love that God has for us, just as we are, we can begin to nurture our bodies and treat them as allies instead of adversaries. When you look at your hips, instead of just seeing those extra inches you can pinch or wistfully comparing their width to the 20 something model that you see on Instagram, stop and look with new eyes. Look at those hips. They help you give birth to babies and your children straddle them for the first years of their lives. Your hips help you stand firm for what is right and you plant your hands on them in righteous, indignation over what is wrong. Your hips endure torturous aluminum benches at soccer matches and dance the night away at birthday parties. Your hips bring such life and joy.
Look at those arms. When you wave goodbye and feel the jiggle of your soft upper arms, don't disparage them as granny bye by arms. Be grateful for the mother or grandmother in your life when their waves welcomed you home and sent you on your way, again, back into the world. Those arms carry everything from babies to briefcases. They wrestle with everything from groceries. They push lawnmowers and wheelchairs and five-year-olds on swings. They lovingly hold your German shepherd puppy. They tenderly hug your elderly mother and they playfully encircle the neck of your husband. And soon they'll be waving granny bye byes at the doorsteps to grownups who will cherish every moment of your embrace. If you ask me, I've never seen more beautiful arms and hips.
Martha Graham said, "The body is a sacred garment. It's your first and last garment. It is what you enter life in and what you depart life with and it should be treated with honor." I love that so much, and honestly, this quote right here, "The body is a sacred garment. It's your first and last garment. It's what you enter life in and what you depart life with and it should be treated with honor," that's partly where honor your body came from, just the whole movement of honor your body. And that's a different story for a different time, but I just want to encourage you guys to embrace your body. Your body is there for you and God created it intricately. He created your body specifically for you and like I said earlier in the commentary, we should have as much respect for ourselves as our maker has for us. Just think about those weighty words. God created you. He loves you. He sees you as wonderfully and beautifully made.
So I hope that this episode inspired you. If you love this episode, or there have been any other episodes that have spoken to you, impacted you or changed your perspective on body, food or fitness, it would mean the absolute world to me if you left a review for the podcast. Not only do I love hearing how the podcast has impacted you, but it also greatly helps me reach more women who need to hear these messages. So all you have to do is open your apple podcast, app search, Embrace Your Real, scroll to the bottom and click, to leave a rating and review. Even if you just write one sentence or even one word, anything will help and I truly appreciate you.
If you have a girlfriend, a friend, a sister, or someone in your life that you feel like would be inspired or encouraged by this specific episode, I just ask that you share it out with them. Or if you have a community of people that you feel like would benefit from this episode, you can also screenshot this and post it up on your Instagram story. Every little share, or like, or even just shooting me a DM and telling me how this podcast episode has impacted you or what you got from it. I love connecting with you guys. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode and I'll talk to you in the next one.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, Julie A. Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips, tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcast, to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.