Listen to the podcast here:

In the past, I always hated being a beginner.

Despite the fact that I love to learn new things, I never liked being really new at something.  I never liked feeling lost and confused.  I never liked the feeling that other people were catching on to something that I wasn’t getting.

When I decided to play bass at Ladies’ Rock Camp this summer, I knew it was a big leap.  I knew that in 2.5 days I was going to learn a bit of bass, form a band, make t-shirts, write a song with my band, and play at the Knitting Factory.  And that was pretty much all I knew.  I didn’t know anyone else at the camp.  I had never played bass before in my life (in fact, I had never played a stringed instrument ever).

But as I walked in to bass class on the first morning of camp, I decided one thing — for once in my life, I was going to embrace being a beginner.  I was going to embrace the power of having a beginner’s mind, of knowing nothing, and therefore being open to all possibilities. As Shunryu Suzuki said in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, “When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something. The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.”

Beginnings (The Fool) From The Goddess Tarot Deck By Kris Waldherr

This same concept shows up in the tarot as well.  The first card of the deck, the zero card, is called the Fool.  But the fool isn’t truly foolish, he or she is just a newbie.  This card implies the beginning of a journey, within or without, the sacred nature of being open to possibilities, the primordial soup within each of us and the power of being a real beginner.

So why am I writing about being a fool and a beginner?  Because I’m hoping to illustrate (perhaps a little clumsily) the power of being new at something.

When we try something new, we often feel powerless.  We feel that we’re at the whim of our teachers, mentors, and counselors.  We feel pressure to get it right, to be prodigies, to not feel lost or admit that we’re lost.

But I think that being new at something can be really powerful.  The first time you wear a sleeveless top can be really powerful.  The first time that you ask a guy out can be really powerful.  The first time you pick up a bass and hear that sound ring out of your amp as it bounces around the room can be really, really powerful.  It can be really freaking scary too, but I agree with Shunryu Suzuki.  When your mind is compassionate, it is boundless.

So, my newbie friends, what are you going to be new at this week?

And if you want to try something really new, I’ll be making a big announcement about The Empress Club in just a few days.  It’s a group program designed to rocket you toward your food and body image desires.  We talked about it at the last teleclass . . . but there’s more to come.  So stay tuned!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Golda Poretsky, H.H.C. is a certified holistic health counselor who specializes in transforming your relationship with food and your body. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/stay-in-touch/ to sign up for her newsletter and get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining!

Have you picked up Golda’s book yet? Get your copy of Stop Dieting Now: 25 Reasons To Stop, 25 Ways To Heal today! Get it for your kindle too!

© 2010 Golda Poretsky. All rights reserved.

No related posts.

Awesome And Awful All At Once originally appeared on on August 30, 2010.

Listen to the podcast of this post here:

So, I try not to get too political in these posts, but I’ve noticed a particular turn of phrase that conservatives keep using to defend the Bush tax cuts.  They say the following:

“Everyone knows that you don’t raise tax cuts during a recession.”

It’s a nasty and brilliant little trick.  Because (a) everyone doesn’t know or certainly agree that raising taxes (particularly on the top 2% of earners) during a recession is a bad idea and (b) it’s an insidious way of saying that anyone who doesn’t know this or disagrees with it is not very smart.  In other words, statements that start with “everyone knows” have a veneer of truth and give you the feeling that you’re stupid for trying to think other wise.

It’s just the kind of nasty and brilliant trick that your inner critic loves to use.

Your inner critic is that voice that tells you, “No, don’t wear that, you’ll look stupid,” or “Why bother exercising if you’re still going to be fat?” or “How could you possibly think that so-and-so likes you?”  It’s that voice that keeps you from moving forward, making changes, and moving beyond what you’re accustomed to.  It gets louder at certain times in your life, and quieter at others, but it often strikes at those moments when you’re moving beyond your comfort zone and trying something new.

For example, I’ve recently got into practicing yoga again, thanks to Abby Lentz’s wonderful DVD’s.  For nearly a week, I did the full hour Heavyweight Yoga 2 DVD every single day.  I hadn’t planned on keeping to that schedule, I just woke up every day and really wanted to practice yoga.  Around the 6th day, I had a particularly busy day, and I didn’t get to the DVD until pretty late at night.  I got through the stretching portion, which lasts about 20 minutes, and then decided that I had had enough for the night.  As I was resting for a moment on the mat, my inner critic voice piped up loud and clear, “You know that you’ve totally screwed up your schedule, right?” it said.  “You were on a roll and now that you think you can just do half the DVD, you’re never going to do the full DVD again.  You’re probably never going to use the DVD again at all.”  I tried to just acknowledge the voice and let it go, but it didn’t stop.  “You really screwed up,” it said.  “You can’t do 40 more minutes of yoga?  It’s not even a really hard yoga DVD.  It barely even counts as exercise.”

I know!  It was awful.  I had been feeling so good from all the yoga, I was ready to go to sleep, and here I was berating myself instead of congratulating myself on listening to what my body wanted by practicing yoga daily and then taking it easy when I was really tired.

But that’s the problem with your inner critic.  It knows just what to say to you to keep you in line, it knows how to shame you into keeping with the status quo, and it makes you feel wrong about your choices, actions and desires.  As a result, your inner critic can prevent you from taking important risks, making positive changes, and feeling good about all that you do.

But there are ways to deal with your inner critic.  So here are three tips to get you started!

1) Acknowledge It — Spend some time keeping a journal of what your inner critic tells you.  What does it say to you?  When does it get particularly loud?  What triggers it?  Does it sound like anyone you know?  After doing this for at least a week, let it go.  You’ve heard it, acknowledged it, and you’ve learned some of your triggers.  You don’t have to fear it because you’ve already heard it all.

2) Remind Yourself That Your Inner Critic Isn’t Always Right – Very often, when we start making changes in our life and having more positive thoughts about ourselves, that inner critic will come in and shut the process down.  For example, if you’re practicing the affirmation “I’m beautiful,” that negative voice may come in even louder and say things like, “That’s a joke!  Affirmations are stupid! You’re okay at the most, but definitely not beautiful.”  When this happens, we usually find ourselves agreeing with our inner critic.    But your inner critic isn’t right, it’s just been with you longer.  It’s a voice and an opinion that you’re used to.  So stop believing that the negative voice is telling the truth.  It’s not.  It’s just keeping you in your place.

3) Affirm, Affirm, Affirm –  Take some of your most negative thoughts and turn them around into affirmations.  For more help with working with and creating affirmations, check out this post.

We’ll be talking about dealing with your inner critic and more in my latest FREE Teleclass — How To Feel Good In Your Skin (coming up August 19th) ! For details and to register, click here. Can’t wait to “see” you there!

P.S.  I tried SO HARD to find an appropriate picture for this post.  So instead, I’m sharing with you the song “Downpressor Man” by Peter Tosh.  It’s not really about your inner critic (obviously) but it may have your inner critic on the run…

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Golda Poretsky, H.H.C. is a certified holistic health counselor who specializes in transforming your relationship with food and your body. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/stay-in-touch/ to sign up for her newsletter and get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining!

Have you picked up Golda’s book yet? Get your copy of Stop Dieting Now: 25 Reasons To Stop, 25 Ways To Heal today!

© 2010 Golda Poretsky. All rights reserved.

No related posts.

How To Deal With Your Inner Critic originally appeared on on August 9, 2010.

From an early age, our culture tells us that losing weight and dieting is the key to having it all.  Whether it’s better health, a better body, or a better lover, we all learn that dieting will get us what we want faster than anything else.

Though we all want this to be true, if you’re like most dieters, then you know that dieting does not equal happiness.  Not only that, dieting can result in lots of unintended effects, like weight gain, disordered eating, and low self esteem, just to name a few.

But there is a way out.  In this breakthrough book, I show you why diets don’t work and how you can break free from dieting patterns that are holding you back from happiness.

When you read Stop Dieting Now!, you will come away with breakthrough insights and practical actions that you can take immediately to change your relationship with food and your body.  Here are just a few things that you will learn from this book:

• Why you can’t stick to diets (hint: it’s not about willpower).
• Simple techniques for letting go of food-related guilt and shame.
• Why you always seem to gain back the weight you lose from dieting.
• How old diet rules and habits can negatively interfere with your food choices, long after you stop dieting.
• How to avoid passing on dieting behaviors to your kids.
• The dangers behind “weighting” to be thinner before you make changes in your life.
• Real tools that support you in making peace with your body.
• And so much more . . .

Where to buy:

• Goodreads (If you’re a member, please mark it as to-read!)
• Amazon US
• Amazon Canada
• Amazon UK
• Barnes & Noble
• AbeBooks
• IndieBound

Let me know when you get it!

And stay tuned for info on my upcoming book signing at Re/Dress NYC!

Related posts:

1. What’s Wrong With Dieting, Again?
2. Why Dieting Is A Bad Idea
3. How To Lose Your Diet Rules

Stop Dieting Now Is Now Available! originally appeared on on July 7, 2010.

by Golda Poretsky, H.H.C.
www.bodylovewellness.com

Listen to the podcast of this post here:

While flitting around on the internet, I came across a gossip column post that started like this:

“Jennifer Aniston has a new man in her life.  The unlucky in love actress, 41, is reportedly dating 30 Rock actor Jason Sudeikis.”

As I read this, I thought, is she unlucky in love or really fricking lucky in love?

It must be pretty terrible to lose your partner to someone else, particularly with a breakup as public as hers and Brad Pitt’s.  That being said, since back in the mid-90′s, she’s been linked to some really attractive and talented guys, from comic actors like Vince Vaughn, Paul Rudd and Jason Sudeikis, to actors known for their handsomeness, like Brad Pitt and Gerard Butler, to famous musicians like Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows.

I can’t help but think that if Jennifer Aniston were a man, the stories we would hear about her would be more akin to what we hear about Brad Pitt’s buddy, George Clooney.  Like Ms. Aniston, he’s a rich, successful movie star who dates a lot.  Unlike Ms. Aniston, no one would ever think that he’s been “unlucky-in-love.”

Seriously, I think  many of you reading this would love to be as “unlucky-in-love” as Jennifer Aniston.

That’s the amazing thing about storytelling.  The way the storyteller decides to characterize an event or a series of events is often more important than the event itself.  The gossip mags can tell you she’s been unlucky in love, or that she’s a woman who seems to effortlessly become involved with interesting, attractive men.  Perhaps the former story sells more copies, but I’d so much rather read the latter.

The same thing applies to your own life.  Most of us have been through troubling times, difficult experiences, bad relationships, illnesses, sadness, grief.  But since you’re reading this post you’re still alive to tell about it.  The question is, what story do you want to tell?

I’m not saying that you should deny the difficult events of your life.  But the fact that you survived is also a wonderful story to tell.  And that story, the story of the way you came through a difficult situation, found resources within yourself or outside of yourself, gleaned from that experience what you wanted and what you didn’t want going forward — that is a story that can inspire you and others to heal and grow.

So I’ll ask you again, what story of your life do you want to tell?  What past experiences do you want to heal and grow from by telling a new story where you acknowledge the awful truth and your amazing capacity to survive?  What parts of your story that have been weighed down by judgments like “unlucky in love” do you want to rewrite in order to acknowledge the wholeness of your choices and experiences?

If you’ve got a story to retell, I invite you to do so in the comments section below. I can’t wait to hear it!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Only 3 days until my next FREE teleclass –How To Feel Sexy At Any Size.   Click to register!

Golda Poretsky, H.H.C. is a certified holistic health counselor who specializes in transforming your relationship with food and your body. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/stay-in-touch/ to sign up for her newsletter and get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining!

© 2010 Golda Poretsky All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. Good, Bad And Everything In Between
2. The Compare-Despair Conundrum

What’s Your Story? originally appeared on on June 21, 2010.

Most women are accustomed to living with the pain and shame of body hatred. And yet, that body hatred causes a ripple effect of problems, from a general feeling of being unfulfilled to intense shame and depression.

In this interview, Golda Poretsky, H.H.C. (founder of Body Love Wellness and author of Stop Dieting Now: 25 Reasons To Stop, 25 Ways To Heal, due out in July) will share her top techniques for feeling sexy and confident no matter what your size — the same ones she shares with her private coaching clients.

You’ll walk away from this call with surprisingly powerful, yet simple techniques for feeling great in your skin.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Easy ways to turn down the volume on your inner critic.
• How to reconnect body and mind in a pleasurable way.
• The top mistake that women make when they’re trying to feel better about themselves.
• An amazingly simple technique that will have you loving parts of your body that you’ve hated for years.
• How loving your body attracts more love from those around you.

Whether hating your body is a new problem for you or you’ve been doing it as long as you can remember, you’ll get at least 3 BIG insights into how to heal from body hatred that you’ll be able to use immediately to feel better at more at ease in your body.

This interview will be conducted by Goddess Oceana, expert empowerment coach, tantric shamaness, and international sexuality educator and leader.

Just enter your info in the boxes below, and you’ll receive the complete call details via email.

Related posts:

1. Don’t Forget To Feel Your Feelings
2. Have A “Food Coma” Free Thanksgiving
3. Exercise Your Right To Bare Arms

How To Feel Sexy At Any Size — Free 60 Minute Teleclass! originally appeared on on May 22, 2010.

Listen to the podcast of this post here:

For much of my adult life, I hid aspects of myself away.  To some people, I was an analytical lawyer, while others knew me only as a health counselor, or a tarot reader, or a improv comedy performer.  I would keep all of these aspects separate, sometimes for self preservation, and sometimes just to make things easy.

Recently, I was interviewed by the Huffington Post’s Nancy Ruhling as part of her Astoria Character’s series.  In the article, I’m pictured with tarot cards in my hands, talking about every part of my career.  When I read the piece, my first reaction was not excitement but fear.  I thought that I might lose health counseling clients who wouldn’t like that I was a lawyer, legal clients who wouldn’t like that I was a tarot reader, and so on and so on.

I took a moment to really connect with the fear, and I soon realized that it was just an old fear of rejection, an old fear of being really seen.   And it was a fear that was wrapped up in old realities that don’t really apply to me anymore.  I realized that I want to be seen and known for all of who I am, and that the world and the economy has changed enough that more and more people are accustomed to multi-career professionals.  I have many friends and clients who have more than one career, and I have lots of clients who have hired me for more than one of my talents.    Bringing all of these parts of me together even led to an epiphany about the work I love doing as a lawyer.

So why am I sharing all of this with you?  Because I want you to know that you don’t have to hide who you are as much as you think you need to.   And I believe that the more you and I can stop hiding, the more we can release guilt and shame, and the more we can feel great about who we are.

When you tell the world who you are, by sharing more of yourself with the people around you, you affirm to yourself and to others that you accept who you are.  You affirm to yourself and others that you’re proud of who you are.  You allow your talents to shine.  You allow yourself to share more of your gifts with the world.  You get to receive acceptance and praise for all that you are.  And you release things like guilt, shame, and any perfectionist tendency you might have to create an “acceptable” facade.

And while we’re on the subject of hiding, a great way to release shame about your body is to stop hiding the parts of it that you feel are too fat or not attractive.  For tips on how to do that so that you feel really great, check out this post from the summer.

Just so we’re clear, I’m not saying that you should immediately send an invitation to the CEO of your company inviting him or her to your burlesque show, but it might be okay to send the invitation to your buddy from your writing class.  I think you get the idea.

So this week, think about a way that you could share more of yourself with the world.   For example, think of 3 things you might want to try and pick the easiest one this week.  Just to start you off, you could:

1) Send an email to some friends letting them know about a new class or event you’re taking part in.
2) Wear something you wouldn’t typically wear, like patterned tights or a color you don’t usually try.
3) Tell a close friend about a dream or desire that you have that you haven’t shared yet with anyone.

The purpose of this exercise is not to knock down your barriers all at once.  But if you can take these small leaps out of your comfort zone and share more of who you are more of the time, you will notice a new sense of a freedom and a new ability to stand for who you are.

As always, let me know how it goes in the comments section!
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Golda Poretsky, H.H.C. is a certified holistic health counselor who specializes in transforming your relationship with food and your body. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/stay-in-touch/ to sign up for her newsletter and get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining.

If you’re in the NYC area, do not miss Golda’s March classes.  Click here to learn more or to register.

Looking for more support with intuitive eating and getting off diets? Click here to sign up for your FREE Body Love Wellness Consultation.

Related posts:

1. The Gratitude Attitude
2. The Way I’m Feeling About My Feelings

What Are You Hiding? originally appeared on on February 15, 2010.

Listen to the podcast of this post here:

Most of us want to change something about ourselves.  We want to eat more healthfully, get more exercise, procrastinate less, make love more, feel less stressed, feel more confident, etc., etc., etc.  Really, I could go on and on!

Of course, some of these issues are easier to change than others.  You might find a few forms of exercise that you really love, find ways to work it into your schedule, have it become a routine and voila! your “exercise issues” are solved.

But there will always be those issues that are harder to change.  And some may never change at all.  But the worst thing you can do is hate yourself for it.

Why is hating yourself or your ailments or issues so destructive?  Because hate prevents change.  Hate prevents healing.

Somewhere along the line, most of us learned that things were wrong with us, and, as a result, we should strive to overcome those things by denigrating them.

In other words, if you grew up fat, you were supposed to hate your fat, hate yourself for being fat, and forever apologize for your existence until you were able to get to some socially acceptable level of thinness.  Even if you had a little “extra fat”, like thighs that were a little larger than your friends’ thighs, you were supposed to go around thinking or saying “I hate my thighs.”  If you weren’t considered very bright, you were supposed to affirm that you were stupid.  If you had certain health conditions, you may have felt like you had to conceal them.

And all of this hate didn’t change anything.  It may have led to poor choices, or loads of shame, but it could only reinforce the perceived “problem”.

Hate cannot create change because hate stops the conversation.  Hate demonizes what is, so that what is cannot become a source of information.  When you allow yourself to feel love for yourself and your problems, you allow yourself to see your problems for what they are.  You allow yourself to see how you might start to create change.

Energetically, hate cannot create change because it blocks the flow of energy, and the movement of energy is needed to allow for change.

So how do we transmute the energy of hatred?  By using the energy of love.

For this week’s tip, I’m going to show you how the energy of love allows a flow of energy and allows change to happen within you.

Try this with me now (you may want to read it first and then try it).  Take a deep breath, and close your eyes.  Picture, imagine, or feel the flow of love in your body.  Do you feel the way it moves through you, into you and out of you?  Can you feel its energy, and that feeling of possibility that it holds?

Now feel the energy of hatred.  Does it feel heavy? Solid?  Miserable? Burning? Cold?

Now, with your eyes open, did you notice anything about that hateful feeling?  Did it feel like the way you feel about the areas of your life that feel stuck or difficult?

So this week, I want you to try this exercise.  Whenever you feel confronted with one of your issues or problems, take a deep breath, and see if you can picture, imagine or feel the issue or problem in your body, or visualize it outside of you.  Then, allow that feeling of love that we just experimented with to spread through you, enveloping you completely, moving through your veins, arteries, organs, bones.  Then extend that feeling to the issue or problem and see how it transmutes it.  You may get a flash of an action you can take, or you may feel as though the issue is subsiding.  Notice what you see and what you feel.  And as always, I welcome you to share your experiences in the comments.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog post on more easy steps for creating change!

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Golda Poretsky, H.H.C. is a certified holistic health counselor who specializes in transforming your relationship with food and your body.  Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/stay-in-touch/ to sign up for her newsletter and get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining.

Looking for more support with intuitive eating and getting off diets?  Click here to sign up for your FREE Body Love Wellness Consultation.

Love the visualization we just did?  Then try out some of Golda’s other visualizations by clicking here.

Related posts:

1. Exorcising Exercising — Part 2 of 2
2. Creating Pleasurable Self Care Rituals
3. Exorcising Exercising — Part 1 of 2

Hating Yourself NEVER Works originally appeared on on February 1, 2010.

Listen to the podcast of this post here:

This morning, I was feeling blah.  I was feeling eh.  I worked steadily from home all morning, finally showering and getting dressed in the late afternoon so that I could run a few errands before meeting a friend for tea.

I had thrown on boring, easy clothes — leggings and a sweater, not much makeup.  I had dressed like my mood, a little boring and dreary and gray.

I didn’t have to leave yet, so I decided to do this thing that I had learned from one of my mentors, Mama Gena.  It’s a skill that she teaches on the first day at her school, and most of her students consider it to be one of their most important, life changing tools.  Once I did it, it completely changed the tone of my day.

It’s called bragging, but it’s not your typical bragging.

With this type of bragging, you take responsibility for all of the amazing things that you do all the time.  It’s about acknowledging your power in the life you’ve created.  And the more you recognize this power, the more it grows and the more you get turned on to it.

Just like with typical bragging, a good brag is often all about the way that you tell it.  A good bragger can talk about doing the laundry and make it sound like an astounding feat.  For example, you could write or say, “I have the most amazing brag.  I’m so creative with always finding outfits to wear that I had really let my laundry pile up.  The bag was so heavy that I could barely get it to the laundromat!  But I brag that the book I’m reading is so good, that having all that laundry to do left me with plenty of time to chill out and read.  I am such a genius for procrastinating with my laundry, because otherwise I never would have set aside all of that time to read this great book.”

You see how bragging can change the way you experience the world?  Suddenly, you’re not beating yourself up for letting your laundry pile up, you’re praising yourself for the power you have to create situations in your life.  You turned a boring afternoon at the laundromat to a brilliant decision to take time out to read a book.  Life didn’t just happen to you, you decided how you wanted it to look.

As you can imagine, you can use bragging for the big and astoundingly wonderful things that happen in your life as well as the difficult things that happen in your life.  It’s such an immensely powerful tool for allowing you to see all of the wonderful things you do every day, as well as the opportunities that may arise from difficult situations.

I know that for many of you, bragging has negative connotations.  We associate it with being obnoxious or self-centered, or we think of braggarts who boast of events that never even happened.  This is not that kind of bragging.  This is the kind of bragging that acknowledges your power, and allows those who hear your brags to (a) agree with you and cheer you on or (b) notice how they can have similar experiences in their own lives.

So this afternoon, I logged on to Mama Gena’s alumni community and wrote out some brags.  I shared all the amazing things that are going on in my life right now, lots of new clients and new friends, lots of opportunities to be in the world in a new way.  Once I was done typing, I was feeling really good again.  Life got a little more vivid.  I changed my outfit, suddenly preferring more form-fitting clothes.  I put some glitter powder on, even though I was just going to the post office and meeting an old friend for tea.  I felt powerful again and I felt turned on by my power and excited for the next brag that I knew was coming my way.

This week, I want you to experiment with bragging.  Write out at least 3 brags about anything in your life.  For extra credit, get a friend to try it with you.  Email each other your brags or speak them aloud.  When you’re hearing or reading someone else’s brag, remember to praise them, let them know what about his or her brag inspires or excites you.  Notice how you feel after bragging.

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Looking for more support with intuitive eating and getting off diets?  Click here to sign up for your FREE Body Love Wellness Consultation.

Are you loving the podcast? You can now subscribe and download it directly from itunes! Be sure to rate it highly and share the Body Love!

Related posts:

1. The Way I’m Feeling About My Feelings
2. The Gratitude Attitude
3. The Compare-Despair Conundrum

Get Your Groove Back Instantly originally appeared on on January 18, 2010.

Luckily, I was able to move through this experience by using two methods — one that I have used for years and one that is new to me, but both that I highly recommend.

This first method, free writing, is one that I love to use with Body Love Wellness clients. It’s a great way to detox your brain of negative thoughts or to connect with your internal truth and wisdom. Sometimes I ask clients to free write on a particular topic that comes up in our sessions, such as “good and bad food” or “being perfect” or “being thin.” Very often, clients get in touch with their beliefs through this process, and they’re then able to work with them or change them.

In my case, after a week or so of living with this uncomfortable (and yet familiar) feeling of body hatred, I decided to spend some time free writing on the topic of beauty. After a few pages, I wrote “since you can’t see it in yourself right now, start looking for beauty everywhere.”

Something about that advice resonated with me. This second method of seeing the beauty everywhere started to move me out of my feelings of ugliness. I started noticing beauty everywhere — in the stark early winter trees, in the crinkly fine skin of the elderly lady who sat next to me on the subway, in the way an older sister held her younger sister’s little backpack. I started to see beauty again hundreds of times over that day, and the next morning I felt like myself again.

It was incredibly simple, and, well, beautiful.

So this week, I would love for you to try either of these tips.

1) Take some time to free write, either without a topic or on a topic that’s troubling you. Let your mind go where it wants. Don’t worry about editing or puncuation. Just write!
2) Make it a point to see the beauty in your surroundings as you go about your day. Try this for one day (or even one minute) and notice any changes.

As always, please comment below!

Attention New Yorkers! Join me at Maxi Craft and get your shop on! Re/Dress, the super fabulous plus sized vintage clothing store , is hosting a night of gorgeous handmade products by local designers. Come chat with me about Body Love and score some great holiday gifts!

DATE: Wednesday, December 9, 2009

TIME: 7:00-9:00PM

LOCATION: Re/Dress NYC 109 Boerum Place Brooklyn, NY
And as always, let’s stay connected. Please stop by my Facebook group and become a member of the Body Love Wellness Group! You can also follow me on Twitter.

Be sure to check out our new podcast!  Body Love Wellness Podcast — Find The Beauty

Related posts:

1. Self Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

Find The Beauty originally appeared on on December 7, 2009.