Dearest Sweet one,

Can I ask you a personal question?

What’s your relationship to your body like?

If it’s not where you’d like it to be, what do you think you could shift to create a more positive experience with your body?

I know this is a touchy subject.

I have yet to meet a woman who loves her body through and through. There is always something that we want to change, right?

But what if the shift was an internal one rather than external?

For me, I haven’t always had a positive relationship with my body. I am a Brazilian woman with big thighs and curvy hips. I am more on the muscular side of things when I workout. Wearing shorts was always a scary proposition.

Trying on skinny jeans – forget about it.

To minimize my curves, at age 15 I tried going vegetarian and ate a ton of cheese (I didn’t know how much fat is in cheese back then!) and I always swore that on Monday I’d start a new diet. Meanwhile, I ate ice-cream most nights and food was my biggest comfort.

Since I couldn’t “control” my body, I disconnected from it. In my mind my body had betrayed me (why wasn’t I a size 2 like the supermodels?). So, I decided to punish my body for its insubordinance and the pain it was causing me.

This led to decades of hating my body and to wondering if I would EVER figure this body image thing out.

I did.

I’m a size 8-10 today (a good place for me).

I still have the lumps and bumps.

My body isn’t perfect (what is that anyway?).

And yet, I have found peace with myself and with food and THAT IS a miracle. A miracle I thought that I’d never experience after 25 years of yo-yo dieting and binge eating.

Finding peace with your body is what today’s topic is all about.  More specifically, manifesting the body you want and creating an abundant relationship to it is absolutely possible and it has NOTHING to do with calories, dieting or deprivation.

Now that spring is here, you may be refocussing on your body and on your desire to feel good again after a long winter.

Here are the magical, key steps to manifesting a body you love (i.e. the inner work I’ve done too!)

1. Loving the body you already have + acting as if

Have you noticed that when you say something mean and hateful to your body it generates more meanness and hatred (and trips to the fridge)?

Step one is feeling gratitude and love for the body you have. Appreciate that you have all your limbs. Spend time putting fragrant cream on your skin and connecting to your body. Indulge. Connect.

Act as if you already are vibrant, healthy and confident in your skin.  I know there is at least 1 body part that you like. Focus on THAT! Treat yourself with the reverence you’d give yourself at a smaller size.

Losing weight and staying at a healthy weight is about connecting to the FEELING of being vibrant and slim.  This connects you to your DESIRE.

This is an extremely loving act that creates FEEL GOOD emotions and supports you in feeling more peaceful in your body. More peace means your body’s producing less stress hormones that store fat. This is a good thing.

The bottom line is that the FEELING you desire to experience IN your body is possible right now. By connecting to it, you’ll feel GOOD in your body more often, more at peace and more alive. It leads to a positive cycle. It’s about accessing a feeling of PLEASURE in your body.

2. Learning to feel your feelings

This is a big one and takes time, I get it.

When we dislike our bodies, we distrust it and tend to live life from the head up (i.e. live in our heads vs. our hearts and our intuition). To compensate, we escape to food, alcohol, shopping, late nights and whatever your numbing activity of choice is.

Truth be told, most of us are afraid of feeling. Some of us have forgotten how to feel altogether. But not to worry, as we can all reconnect to our feelings at any moment. It’s a choice.

The single most important skill we can acquire to manifest a body we love is to TRUST our feelings and to TRUST ourselves that we can feel them and still be alive.

TRUST at the end of the day is the catalyst to manifesting the body we desire.

Until we trust ourselves, our feelings and our bodies, we will keep running from ourselves and escaping to food.

If you are depriving yourself with your food choices, where are you also depriving yourself in your business and in your love life?

From a place of distrust and deprivation, the cycle of hatred continues.

The key to manifesting the body we really desire is to trust and to love ourselves.

These steps sound simple but they are profound healing tools that over time transform our relationship to ourselves.

When we connect to our bodies and our feelings, we also connect to our INTUITION. This is so important in our lives because our intuition is here to guide, protect and to honour our highest good. We all know what sh*t can happen when we don’t trust ourselves.

I’ve seen an epidemic in our world where lack of trust in ourselves leads us to give away our power to the next coach, guru or master that can fix us, fix our businesses, fix our lives. 

First of all, there is nothing to fix.

Just healing work to remind us that we are whole, perfect, complete Divine beings. 

Second, we are the ones and the only ones who know what’s best for us. We can ask for advice and invest in professional support, but it’s our intuition and good judgment that really get to call the final shots.

When we give away our power to others, we give away our ability to make decisions for our highest good and stop accessing our ability to be self-reliant and to trust ourselves.

3. Fall in love with your food

I just spoke to a friend yesterday who said she was craving a fast food hamburger. My response: have it and enjoy every single bite.

She resisted.

Two days later she had eaten a ton of food except the hamburger and the craving for it hadn’t gone away. SO, she gave in and the craving disappeared.  

Your cravings are your body’s way of telling you what you really need. Honour your cravings!

I reminded her that one of the greatest and important pleasures of life is learning to enjoy and savour our food and to TRUST ourselves with food. Trust that we won’t overeat every time and binge every time we feel down and blue. Trust is a much more healthy option than guilt and deprivation.

Trust is a skill we learn when we start loving ourselves more. It comes with practice.

Trusting ourselves with food is a gateway to trusting ourselves with every other important decision in our lives {TWEET it}.

4. And yet, manifesting the body you desire is never REALLY about the FOOD

I teach my clients this every time. While healthy foods will support a healthy body, manifesting a body you desire and having that intoxicating magnetism when you walk into a room is an INSIDE JOB (i.e. not about the food).

If we are leaning heavily on food to comfort us, there’s a part of our life that we are neglecting.

So I wonder: what have you been depriving yourself of?

An over reliance or an unhealthy relationship with food of whatever sort, means that there probably is a part of your life that is not being nurtured and that needs your attention – now.

NEWS FLASH: Check out your inbox NEXT TUESDAY, April 1^st!

I have an amazing solution to help you manifest the body and life you LOVE.

NO diets, NO deprivation and NO punishing workouts.

I can’t WAIT to share it with you.

“See” you in your inbox next Tuesday 4/1!

To your sweet success,