A Word About Body Image with Practise Wellness

Today I bring you an important lesson two friends have recently learned on a journey together, written by the yogi extraordinaire and friend Krystal.

She addresses the all too common issue that we all experience – negative self talk about our body and what we can do to change this way of thinking with one simple exercise.

I often notice patterns forming in my life, and those patterns always mean I am about to learn another life lesson. This year I have been asked to teach yoga or speak about wellness to teenage girls through a number of events. One was the SHINE From Within course, one through a wellness program at a high school, and another through a teenage girl who was holding her own event to help her peers feel more positive about themselves.

All gorgeous events, and I have loved being a part of them. I feel excited that I am able to share with them the skills of yoga and meditation.

All of them have also reminded me how difficult and awkward it can be as a teenage girl. The Nutrition Guru and I were chatting about this recently and we realised a lot of the negative perceptions we had of ourselves when we were 16, still applied today.

I have never liked my hips and thighs, and she has never liked her knees and butt. We were both shocked that 15 years this was still the narrative we fed ourselves in the mirror. That day we both made a promise to STOP with the negative talk and comparing ourselves to others.

The craziest part is I love the Nutrition Guru’s bubble butt, and she loves my long legs. The parts we wish we could change, others wanted (if only we could switch…).

This is such an important lesson as what we tell ourselves, we become. And even these subtle narrations we keep replaying as second nature take their toll. I thought I had moved past this lesson and was done with negative self talk, but it had become so natural that I didn’t even notice I was doing it.

Since that conversation every time I catch myself being negative about anything to do with my body, I stop and instead say ‘thank you’.

The Nutrition Guru and I want to invite you to do the same. Take a piece of paper and draw a line right down the middle.

Think of your main body gripe. On one side of the paper, write down what you usually think about that area or body part. “My thighs are too big. If only they were… etc”

Now on the other side, write the opposite. “My thighs are the perfect size for me.”

Rip the paper in half and throw that negative self talk in the bin. And LEAVE it there. At the top of the paper write this affirmation, or print it out.

Krystal shares more positivity, yoga, food and wellness on her website, facebook and instagram.

Her very popular mediation course starts again in October on the Sunshine Coast. One day of guided meditation bliss in Peregian, a printed copy of the Modern Yogi Meditation ebook, your own mala, and an organic vegan lunch…