embody: Learning to Love Your Unique Body (and quiet that critical voice!)

It is not always easy to resist the voice that tells us we’re flawed. Don’t forget that advertisers give us just this message so we will spend our money attempting to fix ourselves. There is a reason the diet industry generates about sixty billion dollars per year!

Your body does not have to be the cause of your suffering. You might try thinking of it as the amazing vehicle that allows you to move through this world, or a vessel to be filled with life’s rich experiences. Each and every one of us has unique gifts to offer, which are meant to be shared. When we stop blaming our bodies for our struggles, we have

•Learn to listen to—and follow—your body’s wisdom. •Acquire tools and resources to help you eat, exercise, and live intuitively.

While genes mainly determine whether you are big, small, or somewhere in-between, it is your lifestyle—how you care for your body in terms of food, movement, rest, and stress reduction—that is the primary determinant of physical wellbeing.

Staying with self-love keeps you from withdrawing your love from your partner. You don’t need to prove they are wrong in order to feel good about yourself.

“It’s a process to take this all in, but once you do, it just becomes part of your everyday life. It’s addictive!” The addiction spoken of here is the commitment to self-love, the ability to see great beauty in one’s self as well as in others, and the pursuit of positive, joyful self-care. What could be better?

We understand that choosing this path is much easier with support, which is why we have dedicated our lives to helping people reconnect with their inborn ability to identify—and pursue—what they need in order to thrive.

Healthy Pleasures, Doctors Sobel and Ornstein summarize the results of numerous studies done on the health benefits of moderate exercise. One study found that getting an average of thirty minutes of physical movement per day through activities such as gardening, walking, fishing, dancing, and doing physical chores cut the occurrence of fatal heart

The Be Body Positive Model is comprised of five core Competencies: 1.Reclaim Health 2.Practice Intuitive Self-Care 3.Cultivate Self-Love 4.Declare Your Own Authentic Beauty 5.Build Community