WU World Changer Elizabeth Kipp shares how to drop the stress and anxiety over your body image in this article, Relieve stress, anxiety, and fear part 5. Late joining this series? Catch up from the beginning with Part 1 or from last week\’s Part 4!
7 Ways to Relieve Stress, Anxiety, and Fear Part 5 of 7 – Body Attitude Check: Loving the Skin You’re In!
What if you truly loved, accepted and valued yourself right now, in this moment, regardless of your age, weight, or shape? What if you could feel so comfortable in your own skin that you could move in utter freedom? Would you like to find your voice and speak your truth to the world? For me, this task has taken a good portion of my life. And I have to remind myself every day that I am worthy of feeling this way and my words have, and even add, value to the world.
I was born into a family where beauty abounded. My maternal grandmother, Elizabeth, modeled for Vogue magazine in the roaring 20’s. I saw stunning pictures of her as I grew up. I wish I had known her., but she predeceased me. Yes, I am named after her. She positively beamed when she looked into a camera lens. In some of her pictures, she has an expression like she is privy to some secret that the rest of us have yet to discover. Yet no one in the family hardly ever spoke about her. I was left to my imaginings. She was special, like a goddess to me, in my childhood and in young womanhood. She remains an icon in my life.
I had some internal housekeeping to do! I never felt like I could even begin to hold a candle to my grandmother’s beauty, both inside and out, until I realized that I had some interior housekeeping to do. I had to learn that my external beauty truly reflects my inner perception of myself. I had to find a way to stop the war going on inside of me – the one between me and myself where I’m always telling myself that I don’t measure up – to other people’s expectations of me, or to my own expectations for myself. I felt full of shame about how I looked. What an internal battle. Time to call Housekeeping!
I learned to accept my body as an expression of the Divine, with all their ‘ imperfections.’ You know, these imperfections: my nose is a funny shape, my legs are too short, my thighs are too fat. This is an endless negative spiral. These \’imperfections\’ are part of who I am. Who am I to question the Divine? This realization was humbling. My ego received a cosmic smackdown!
With the help of the Divine, I found my way into empowerment. I claimed my value to the world. When I realized I was a creation of the Divine and here to give my gifts to the world, I became empowered and could contribute my value, confident that I actually had value to give.
Maybe I discovered Elizabeth’s secret after all! I learned how to channel my own inner goddess.
Here are a few pointers for relieving the stress and anxiety you may have around your body image:
- Check your body attitude – give it an adjustment if needed.
- Love yourself exactly the way you are! Your body is the one you came with. It is here. Give it good food, plenty of water, rest, and exercise – and most importantly – love.
- We need you to be YOU! Please bring us your gifts, quirks, and everything else that you are.
- Bring the breath. This is your go-to tool when your mind starts to spin negative thoughts about what you look like and any other derogatory comment that arises. Breathe into whatever body sensations are coming up for you and stay with those.
- Drop out of The Comparison Game. The only way to win this game is to stop playing.
How we feel about ourselves, both on the inside and the outside can truly make such a difference in the level of stress and anxiety that we carry with us. We must realize that we have a choice in our viewpoint of what we deem “beautiful.” And are we referring to our inside or our outside? It’s so interesting to me that when we clean house on the inside, the radiance we cultivate from that cleaning is so prominent and pronounced in how it expresses itself on our outside. No matter what our body shape, size, or style, when we love our life from the inside out, it shows up as so obvious to other people that we are living in all of our beauty and brilliance. When you love the skin you are in, the world cannot miss or deny such beauty.
For more on learning to love the skin you’re in and other help, I invite you to please check out my FREE Tool Kit for Relieving Stress.
– Elizabeth
Elizabeth is a Health Facilitator, Empowerment Coach, EFT/Tapping and Ancestral Clearing Practitioner, and Kundalini Yoga Teacher, helping people to step into the power of their own healing. She has turned her attention as a patient advocate and health facilitator in service to the alarmingly high population of people who suffer from stress, chronic pain, and the quest for a life free from suffering.
