Acceptance: An Appreciation of Our Bodies and Ourselves…
“Create the perfect relationship between you and your body. Treat your body with all your love, honor, gratitude, and respect. When you make it your goal to adore your own body and accept yourself completely, you are learning to have a perfect relationship with anyone else you are with.” Don Miguel Ruiz
Acceptance: An Appreciation of Our Bodies and Ourselves… healing the body dysmorphia
Summer season is around the corner and, with it, are all the things we do to get in shape and get ready to show off what we have… I would like us to pause for a moment, as we barrel ahead with plans; sane and not so sane, and remember to honor the temple we call our human body. As we find time to appreciate how our body will look this summer and how it continues to serve us, we must nurture and honor what we have. Each body part plays a role that helps us navigate the world around us, and showing appreciation by thanking each part, caring for each limb, and participating in any form of restorative self-care (rest, healthy eating, massage, yoga, walking, and other exercises) will add to our overall sense of well being. Self acceptance is key.
For our dear fellow sisters/brothers who struggle with body dysmorphic disorder, please seek medical care and take care of your body for you are beautiful as you are. I have added two beautiful poems below; odes to ourselves… Let’s enjoy them and keep their wise messages close to our hearts. We all deserve to enjoy our summers with the bodies we have…. What holds you back? More Below
Time Tested Beauty Tips ~ By Sam Levenson (1911-1980) From his book: “In One Era & Out the Other”
For attractive lips, Speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, Seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, Share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, Let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, Walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored,
renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands;
one for helping yourself,
the other for helping others.
“You are what you believe you are. Humans are powerful magicians. You have the power to make yourself what you are right now, but it’s not your reasoning mind that controls your power; it’s what you believe. ” Don Miguel Ruiz
Acceptance: An Appreciation of Our Bodies and Ourselves… accepting the Venus de Milo within
The Beauty Of A Woman ~ Attributed to Maya Angelou, Ralph Fenger, Audrey Hepburn & Sam Levenson
The beauty of a woman isn’t in the clothes she wears,
The figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes;
Because that’s the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman isn’t in a facial mole;
But true beauty in a woman, is reflected by her soul.
It’s the caring that she cares to give, the passion that she shows;
And the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows.
If there is anything we can learn from these poems it is that physical attractiveness is not the only thing that draws others to us… In fact, our inner beauty lasts longer and carries us through the rest of our lives… Cherish the body you have. Honor the Venus de Milo within…
What are your thoughts? In what way do you honor your body and yourself? What flaws do you see in your body? How do they make you feel and can you make peace with them? Do share! Thank you. 🙂
Positive Motivation Tip: Our body is a temple and temples come in different shapes and forms… Nurture it, love it, honor it.
Related articles
- Beauty of a Woman (sephrahosein.wordpress.com)
- Audrey Hepburn (strugglesofabutterfly.wordpress.com)
- Time Tested Beauty Tips (stacidavidson.wordpress.com)
PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: Poems Time Tested Beauty Tips and The Beauty Of A Woman via Sapphyr.net Photo of Body Dysmorphia by Dr. Mohamed Osman and Venus De Milo via Wikipedia
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet
I added a link to my page for you, meaning you are my blogging buddy, but you probably knew that already. I wanted to say Happy Memorial day and what will you be doing with the twins? I hope it’s fun and enjoyable. The weather in Chicago better be sunny.
I love my hair, hate my body, and am not so comfortable in my own skin. LOL
Yes thank you Jackie and you have always been my blog buddy… 🙂 All is well… We will relax at home this weekend to catch up on household things.
I hope you find ways to love who you are fully… the grass is not greener on the other side. You comment is much appreciated.
🙂
I’m working on being able to honor my body and am trying to do so by eating much better and working out. I know it will be a slow process to change some of my bad habits and my overall appearance, so I am also working on accepting my body for what it is. thanks for the great post! hope you have a great Memorial Day!
Good for you Stacey and keep it up. I’m working through the same process too and that contributed to why I wrote the post. Hope your Memorial Day was restful. 🙂 😳
I was on IM last night with my husband, doing lots of “Yippee” type stuff.
Here is a part of our exchange:
Mrs O: LOL – well, I am devastated because I broke a finger nail so one hand will not look as nice as I would like
Mr O: never mind about that I love you with whatever
To pedantic little me, my nails being all the same length and painted is sort of like “icing on the cake” type stuff – if I were actually a cake, I’d want to be VERY nicely iced for Mr O’s return. As I think many of us do….
His response was a timely reminder that people, including our most special people, love us for who we are, not the length of our nails, the colour of our hair, or the size of our bra.
We are all loved by someone… I love what your hubby said to you, yet I can relate to what you are saying too; despite our hangups and personal letdowns.
TY for your feedback. 😳 🙂
I am trying to lose a few pounds before I embark on my overseas trip in September, but as I have gotten older, I am learning to accept my body – warts ‘n’ all! I am comfortable in my skin at long last (just need to shed those extra pounds)!
Great post Elizabeth.
Sam Levenson’s Time Tested Beauty Tips is teaching us to be selfless, to be generous, to be a man or woman for others. If we are beautiful inside, it will exude on our exterior . We should listen to our inner self to what is beautiful and not what the media is trying to brainwash everyone. Remember the song,” I am beautiful?” It is true for all, we just need to accept it. great post.
Excellent advice from two lovely poems. Thanks for sharing.
The poems are excellent ! The Mind, Body and Spirit elements of our being are One. Years ago, during my initial recovery process, I found that it was important to restore these three elements after their degradation. Partcipating in the process, I have come to appreciate and love deeply the forces that make me whole.
I totally agree! Everyone is beautiful in his or her own way. And if someone dRes to tell you differntly, he is not worth your time and love!
round and happy: a perfect body!
I’m totally comfortable with my body, as well as my outlook on life, but the outlook would be much greater if I could shed a few extra ponds !! 🙂
Great Post !
I am definitely comfortable in my own skin . . . who I am is who I want to be. 😀
When I look at air-brushed models on the covers of magazines, I know that I would not trade places with them. I’m happy in my own shoes.
Good post, E!
Love the Levinson poem and I may share it if you don’t mind.
We are working on this acceptance thing all the time, aren’t we? I find what the heart knows the head tries to argue with, at times. It’s a struggle but I’m getting better at it. It only took 61 years.
thanks Eliz!
I’m not happy with my body right now but I know it’s something that I have the power to change. Except for that, I’m comfortable with myself though I could definitely use some of the tricks and tips they use to make women look like cover models.
Good post, as usual, Elizabeth!
Marcia
What a great post, Eliz! Thanks for shining a light on this topic.
So important, especially for women, who often have feelings of inferiority and dislike about their bodies/looks.
I think I was always proud of my body from the neck down. 🙂 And very unhappy about it from the neck up. 🙁 I always hated my curly brown hair! Now that I’m older, I look back on those photos of a teenage, 20’s and 30’s me…and I see a really attractive-looking young woman. My husband says I was always so cute…but I never thought so back then. Sad to say, I still wish I had straight hair…the grass is always greener, I guess.
The Sam Levenson poem is so true–I have to Tweet this post with your permission. Since January I have been religiously taking one solid hour of boot camp twice a week. I am probably healthier/stronger at 58 than I was at 32! Now my hair . . . that I’ll save for a blog post!! Keep us on our toes, Eliz. Thank you!
I dream of accepting the body I have. I could stand to make some changes but remind myself its all good from God.
I wish everyone would read this reminder and the excellent poems. They are needed badly.
B
This is a reminder I definitely need!
Elizabeth. Thanks for opening the doors to acceptance. Happy I read this positive reinforcement.
One of the beauties of nature is being able to recognise who we are, and to be appreciative of our uniqueness. There is no one else in this world who will walk our walk or talk our talk. We will definitely meet others along our life’s path, as we do we learn and grow. There are times we need to reflect and there are times we just need to move forward, loving ourselves and learning from our experiences. I believe the greatest gift is to be true to ourselves. Getting to this point is a journey that begins with what we see, the sooner we see who we are in our hearts, the sooner we can live and love with joy.
Happy to be here. Happy to be me.
Lovely post! I’m afraid the only I do for my body is taking the dog for an evening walk! I’m always promising myself yoga, dance lessons, swimming… maybe someday I’ll get to them!
I love your post! It’s a topic that resonates deep within me. I have so many insecurities about my body and how others see me. Most of the time it’s difficult to convince myself to agree on the compliments by people who are close to me. I still end up comparing myself with others. Truly, acceptance of ourselves, is the first step in respecting and loving our bodies.
I love your post! It’s a topic that resonates deep within me. I have so many insecurities about my body and how others see me. Most of the time it’s difficult to convince myself to agree on the compliments by people who are close to me. I still end up comparing myself with others. Truly, acceptance of ourselves, is the first step in respecting and loving our body.
When we can see ourselves the way God sees us…it’s freeing.
We can trade beauty for ashes…
Isaiah 61:10 (New International Version)
10 I delight greatly in the LORD;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
blessings
jane
Learning to love myself just as I am has been a battle for a long time… Insecurities brought on by other’s words had damaged my image for years. Happy to say that as time has pressed on it has allowed for healing; giving me permission to love my body and myself as a whole, cherishing my health and taking pride in who I am!
Love the poem by Sam Levenson. I will keep this post in mind as I try on swimsuits!