The thing about loving your outside…your body…this vehicle that drives you around life- is that it takes work. Just like any other relationship. It takes time, commitment, focus.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a society that makes it very easy for us to love every part of ourselves. Actually, sometimes the world we live in makes us feel egotistical, and conceited when we do love our outsides. Nuts I tell ya. Nuts.

Loving your outside is important. Like, really important. It’s not about looks, or weight, or having trendy clothes or whatever…that stuff is just a distraction, believe me. It’s about respecting and being kind to this amazing container that we are all blessed with. Yes, our bodies are our container, holding the best present in the world…our inner gorgeous amazing juicy complex …selves. So stop trashing the wrapping paper people. Have some respect, there are diamonds inside.

Here’s my proposal… Let’s fall in love with our gift box one part at a time. Let’s start with the foundation…our legs. Seriously. Let’s just fall madly, deeply, and passionately in love with our legs. Make a decision. Decide that the most important love affair in your life right now, is with your legs.

Take your legs out on a date, wear short skirts, or for my male readers, if skirts aren’t your thing- show off those calves somehow, some way. Shave every day-or don’t if that’s your style…whatever feels delicious in your world… do it. Thank your legs for holding your entire body up. Appreciate your legs for resting or sitting or folding or walking. Ya, thank your legs for walking. And if your legs don’t work the way you wish they did… send them love. Big love.

Wear t-shirts around the house and that’s it. Let your legs be seen and free. Tell them how sexy they are. Even if you don’t think they are… tell them they are. They need to hear it, and you need to practice saying it. Touch your legs, flirt with them. Celebrate your thighs. I’m not kidding people, celebrate your damn thighs.

Go out with your friends and have an “I love my legs night out” Go to dinner. Talk about your legs and where they’ve taken you…and where they’ve helped you get away from. Talk about when your legs took you dancing or allowed you to take a break. Talk about your legs like you talk about your other relationships. Respect them. Appreciate them. Share your leg stories. Try it. Yes, seriously.

Really…It’s time. It’s time we take a different approach to loving our bodies. We live inside these amazing vessels, yet we trash them and put them down. It makes no sense. Enough already.

Let’s take it one part at a time. Fall in love with your legs. And then send your leg-love stories to brooke@soapboxtherapy.com

And that’s the thing about loving your outside.

Love,

So our bodies, these amazing gorgeous vessels, hold everything. Everything. All our stuff. Really. Like, all of it.

When we are sad and don’t tell anyone, that sadness gets stored in our bodies. When we are angry and don’t communicate, that anger gets stored in our bodies. When we have scary and uncomfortable experiences… you guessed it, that fear hangs out in our bodies.

We end up with all of these emotions in our bodies that are filling us to the rim and are truly overwhelming to even think about. Like the closet you keep promising to clean out, but it’s just way too huge a task to even start, so you don’t, and then it just keeps getting more and more out of control and you become less and less likely to tackle it. Ya, this is like that.

Instead of taking on the massive and sometimes painful task of cleaning out our bodies, sharing our feelings and being…wait for it… vulnerable, SO many amazing beings just push it all away and cover it all up. It’s a good trick actually, it’s called denial.

For an unbelievable number of people, the cover-up of choice is food. The thing about food for so many amazing people is that it’s the perfect solid, dense, thick nothing-is-getting-past-this-sucker cover up. First, we push all the emotions and experiences that we aren’t ready to release, we don’t want to talk about, and we don’t want to admit down into the depths of our bodies. Then we throw a bunch of food that we likely aren’t physically hungry for on top of them. Then, we win. ‘Cause the only feeling we have accessible is fullness. “I feel full.” No need to deal with any of the other feelings because fullness is here to save the day! Ya, you bet you’re full-of everything other than food in the first place. Congratulations. Denial and suppression of your amazing perfect human feeling self…accomplished.

Oh, an important point… this doesn’t just relate to those of you out there who have sadness, hurt, and anger. It’s also for those of you who have unachieved potential, unmet self confidence, unaccomplished goals, etc. When we suppress anything, whether it’s a horrible trauma, a crappy break up, or an amazing part of ourselves that we haven’t yet introduced to the world….we get full. And for human beings, it’s way easier to be full of food, than of feelings.

Here is the big announcement my loves… the food doesn’t make the feelings go away, it just tricks you into thinking they have. I’m not saying never again down a pint of double chocolate chunk after a royally crappy day… I’m just asking you to think about it.

Love love love,