Love Your Curves
by: Melinda Parrish
Loving your body can be a challenge in today’s world, especially for curvy women, when there is so much noise out there telling you that you need to change your body.
Would you believe that when I first got this photo of myself back from the shoot, I didn't like how I looked? I wasn't familiar with seeing images of myself, and I was clinging to all kinds of negative ideas about how I looked that prevented me from seeing the beauty of the photo. When I looked at photos of myself, I used to think, “God, if I just lost weight I would look so much better, and be happier, and be able to do the things that I want to do in my life.”
Many of us have bought into the idea that to love your body, and your life, you have to change your body. But it’s possible to love your curves without losing any weight at all!
When I was introduced to Kara Loewentheil, a cognitive life coach who works with women on loving their bodies, we immediately clicked as two women who had, in their former lives, believed that size was the main thing that was holding us back from becoming the women that we wanted to be. (In fact, Kara now runs amazing body love coaching retreats that you can check out over at Beyond the Curve Retreats—the next one is coming up soon!).
For both of us, discovering yoga was critical to changing our feelings about our bodies. At the time when I was discovering yoga, I was usually the largest person in the room at yoga classes. I was so uncomfortable with my body, and afraid of being judged by other yogis, that for a while I only practiced yoga at home.
There weren’t a lot of great clothing options available to me, like comfortable plus size leggings that would support my active lifestyle. And there definitely wasn’t a vast community of curvy women, like me, who were sharing their experiences in starting yoga, as there are today.
Curvy yoga is becoming an increasingly popular way for curvy-bodied women to get started with yoga and experience their bodies in a new way. Now, there are plenty of books, clothes, gear, and experiences available to curvy women who want to deepen their yoga practice.
Your body is perfect, just as it is. You don’t need to lose weight. You can learn to love your body, exactly as it is, from the inside out through yoga, as Kara and I have done.
To help you on this journey, check out the free “How to Love Any Photo of Yourself: Guaranteed!” download that Kara and I are offering this week!
Don’t keep putting off the things you want to do in life because of your size—start playing with ways to love your curves today!
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