Body Positivity: How to LOVE your body

I met Laura Phelan while I was in Costa Rica in November 2020. Laura is a body image expert, therapeutic coach/speaker, and founder of Phelan Well. I LOVE her body positivity message and work so I asked her to contribute to our LOVE SOURCE blog, wellness edition. 

Laura, take it away...

How can we love our bodies?

I was at war with my body once.

I starved my body until I was ill.

I HATED what I saw in the mirror and couldn’t accept who I was.

I battled with an eating disorder and my body for years.

Recovering from this was the hardest but best thing I ever did for myself and I am on a mission to help other women do the same.

Did you know that around 50% of women avoid going on holiday every year for fear of how they look in a bikini?

Did you know 7 in 10 women with low body esteem say they wont be assertive in their opinion if they aren’t happy with the way they look?

On average a woman will spend around $30,000 in their lifetime on diet and beauty products to try and mould themselves into society’s ideal?

We may be dealing with a global pandemic this year, but did you ever consider that poor body image is a pandemic we have been living with FAR longer?

The most common things I hear in my work and the women I meet in my life: But isn’t it normal to dislike my body? Every woman wants to be thinner doesn’t she? Doesn’t everyone think about their bodies all the time? I know that losing this weight will mean I’m finally happy with my body!

These are the common things I hear not just from women I work with, but people I meet in all walks of life—and I am so determined to change this conversation!

We were put on this earth for more than to “look good” and die trying to mould our bodies into a form that’s palatable.

You are worth more than that, you don’t have to accept feeling this way.

You can FEEL good in yourself without going to war with your body—it is possible.

You can feel like a glorious goddess without tearing yourself apart in the mirror each day.

You can feel sexy as hell without forcing yourself into the gym class you actually hate every day.

You can care about your health AND stop treating your body like shit.

Yep, it’s possible.

So what can we do to improve our body image, become more embodied and give our bodies the LOVE they truly deserve?

• Digging deep into our belief systems, ancestral beliefs and stories we hold about out bodies.
• Trauma release work, trauma stored in the body contributes to feeling alien in our bodies.
• Soulful work, what matters most to you in life, what are your values, your purpose and what lights you up from within?
• Touch and intimacy, not just with a partner but with yourself too.
• Health vs punishment, looking after yourself through nourishment and care, not by cutting out foods and overexercising.
• Healthy relationships and boundaries, having a support system.
• Healing your relationship with food.
• Mediation.
• Travel and experiencing the world.
• Focusing on the problems inside instead of always looking to the outer to change.
• Daily affirmation and language work.

(I have a step-by-step process to help you achieve the above, keep reading and you will get access.)

Ultimately, learning to fall in LOVE with your body takes the same amount of work as it would to fall in LOVE with yourself, but its so worth it, because living in an embodied free way means you can live your life without guilt, self hatred thoughts and enjoy what life has to offer.

My mission is to help women realise that they do not need to spend their lives obsessing over food, their weight, or their bodies to be happy.

I want to help them shift their deep rooted negative beliefs about food and their bodies, heal their relationship with food, find body acceptance, and ultimately live a life of food and body freedom so they can focus on living their lives to the FULLEST!

Want to know more about your relationship with your body and how its stoping you live your life? Find out through Laura's Free food and body freedom archetype quiz

Ready to dive into step by step tools to working towards loving your body more? You can access Laura’s Food & Body Freedom Bundle here—its only £37!