Yoga Girl

putting into my body. A little bit of ice cream is not going to ruin your life.
Guilt, however, could!
I realized that being healthy and caring for your body is all about mind-
set. By obsessing over every little thing I was putting in my body, I had
created a harsh, judgmental environment for myself. A tense environment
doesn’t allow us to create the happiness we need; to have a happy, healthy
body we need to think happy, healthy thoughts about it! Loving your body
means loving every part of it, not just when it suits your mind or when
you’ve created the “perfect” conditions for it.
It’s not that difficult to love our bodies when we’re working out a lot,
following a strict regimen, eating a specific diet—when we fit ourselves
into a mold that society has told us we need to fit into. But this love is not
whole or true. It’s the mind tricking us into believing we’re happy because
we are trying to control the body. e second you “fall off the wagon,” the
moment you eat that dessert or skip a workout or whatever else you’ve
decided is essential for you to be happy about the way your body looks, you
will feel guilty.
Why is it so important to be thin? Fit? Muscular? Why is it that we on
some level feel that we are not good enough the way we are? Who taught
us that we need to see a certain number on a scale to be happy? When was
it decided that we need to look a certain way to feel happy about who we
are? Yes, we want to be healthy. Yes, we want to feel good. But the world
we live in is full of unrealistic expectations that absolutely no one can live
up to. We all have different ideas about what it means to have a good
body, but my definition is this: A good body is every body. Your body, the
way it is now in this moment, is a good body. You have legs to walk you
through the world, a mouth to speak with, a heart to feel, hands for
touching. Your body is a miracle just the way it is. You are a miracle just
the way you are. Start treating yourself that way, and exercise and healthy
eating habits will come easily. Stop judging yourself! When we truly love
who we are, we will naturally want to care for our bodies. It’s where our
soul resides. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others and start