Celebrating Your Body as a Mum
This morning was an interesting morning. I dropped the boys off to pre-school and school and came home. In my mind I had a list of things that I wanted to do today but my focus shifted to a conversation with my personal trainer that morning. It’s been about 4 months since I commenced personal training following losing my mobility in both my pregnancies from severe Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction. That’s a whole other story!
I made a decision just before Christmas 2012 to be healthier with food and exercise. I am now a size 14 and have a couple of dress sizes to go for my best body. Anyway getting back to this conversation…
My trainer reminded me about celebrating my achievements with exercise. I know that celebrating achievements is really important and I do this well as a mum but hadn’t realised how little I was doing it in the context of my health. I decided I would allow myself to read for an hour as a reward for the training session I had this morning.
Something made me pick up a book I was gifted for my birthday almost three months ago – Michelle Bridge’s “Your Best Body.” Little did I know of what would occur in the next hour…
I devoured the introduction and the chapter on “best mind.” I got to the part where she said, “Acceptance is the conduit for change…it is the first step in moving forward” and I burst into tears. Acceptance is a key area on which I coach mums and I understand how critical it is to achieve success in any area of life yet here I was. I realised I did not accept my own body. The tears subsided as quickly as they came and I decided I was going to change this right now.
The understanding came so quickly because of an experience of a friend of mine. She had a super healthy body and was a size 8 when she went on an overseas trip. She came back suffering from severe edema (retention of body fluid.) In the space of a few weeks she went from a size 8 to a size 16. This friend is inspirational. She showed me that, if you unconditionally accept and appreciate your body, your self-esteem and self-worth are not linked to your body shape and size. Because of this she was able to accept the condition she had and work through it. Eighteen months on, she is now back to a size 10.
I wonder what her experience of life and her ability to deal with her condition would have been like, had she have not accepted and appreciated her body unconditionally? Would she have even been able to work through her condition in the way she has for a sustainable result? According to Michelle Bridges, highly unlikely.
I took a bath and read some more of the book. After a long soak I got out of the bath, dried myself off and Iooked in the full-length mirror. I mean really looked. I took my time. I used the acceptance process on each part of my body, even the parts that, if I could wave a magic wand, I would change: my double chin, my boobs, upper arms, my love handles, my thighs…I spent extra time on these areas. As I brought acceptance to each I began to smile. I realised I was smiling at my body…
A wave of gratitude swept over me and I began to thank my body for all that it does and has done for me. “Thank you to my legs for holding me up each day. Thank you to my belly for carrying two beautiful boys so safely through my pregnancy. Thank you to my body for being so together on the days when I am on the go from morning until night.”
Then the BIG one for me, “Thank you to my pelvic floor for holding the babies in position no matter how heavy they got!”
So how does this change anything? The answer is – it just does. I have seen many mums transform with the magic of acceptance. I am excited about what will unfold in the next few hours, days, weeks and months. I’ll keep you posted!
I do know that I went to make a cup of coffee and instead of digging into the open packet of Cheezels in front of me I opted for a Baked Oat Slice – WOOHOO!! Baby steps…
Go on! Give it a go! I would love to hear your thoughts and all about your experiences below. What have you got to lose except a few hang ups you don’t need anyway?