Confidence boosting photoshoots Surrey | How to Self Love

19th January 2021

Why your thoughts are key to loving your body more

If you’re anything like I was, January comes and you’re not feeling that great about your body. You want to love your body more. You’ve overindulged in December and over the Christmas break and have put on a few pounds you’re so desperate to lose! You could just ignore it and accept your body is not that of a Supermodel, but you know if you don’t do something about that extra weight, it’ll just keep creeping up. And you certainly don’t feel confident about your body when it comes to taking your clothes off!

You try every diet going (but don’t completely stick to one thing) and set a good intention to exercise more. You might lose a few pounds, but you struggle to lose any more. You’re fed up of dieting and restricting your food. You get a bit disheartened and give up. “I’ll get back on it in the Spring when the weather is warmer and I’m able to exercise outside more,” you think. So you wear baggy clothes and ignore your body.

Sound familiar? 🙂

I hate to break it to you, but that’s never going to work. Diet and exercise are not the only answer to feeling good about your body. The good news is, there is a way to love your body as it is, WITHOUT dieting, AND reach your desired healthy weight and shape!

That’s because it’s all in the mind. And I’m going to tell you why 😉

All Bodies are beautiful

Now, let me tell you first, ALL bodies are beautiful. Regardless of age, weight, shape, size, colour. But it’s easy for me to say this when I see and photograph so many gorgeous different bodies in my studio and I’m a Body Confidence Coach. The media is very good at telling us a story of what other people’s bodies are like. The media also likes to tell us what our bodies SHOULD be like. But that doesn’t mean that’s true. You get gorgeous plus-sized models who absolutely love their bodies and want to show them off (whoop!)… You also get thin and athletic models who are not body confident in the slightest and always pick up on their flaws.

The important thing is that YOU love your own body. And if you want to lose weight or not it’s completely your own choice. But whatever your dream body, you CAN achieve it.

Set your body goal, intention & vision

My goal for my own body is that I completely love myself as I am, but also that I create a healthy, fit body and look after it. Because that’s what self-love is to me. Looking after yourself and caring for yourself as you would a loved one, in order to be your best self for others too.

So for me, personally, I wanted to lose a bit of weight to FEEL good in my body. To be my fittest and healthiest (by my own standards, not anyone else’s) and to treat my body like the Goddess she is. I wanted to go running and find it easier to run for longer. And of course, I know you can be in a larger body and still be super fit and find running easy… but for me, I know that I find it easier when I’m at my ideal weight, which is around 145lb. I wanted to create more energy and not be tired all the time.

What’s your intention and vision for your body?

Mindset is key!

I’d heard that mindset is so important, but I never really got it until fairly recently. I knew that there were only a couple of times I’d successfully dieted in my life previously. But I couldn’t put my finger on why sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.

The truth is, the only time I ever loved my body and successfully lost weight was when my mindset was in a really good place. It was when I was looking after myself, and doing things that brought me joy; when I had good self-esteem and focussed on self-love.

Hating your body is not going to help

We automatically find the negatives in situations. Our brains are programmed to always look for danger and possible threats in order to keep us safe. Back in the stone ages, it was to stop us from being attacked by something that could eat us. Nowadays, the perceived “danger” can be something new and unknown, like getting out of our comfort zone in order to change into a better version of ourselves. It feels “safe” to just stay where we are, without any change.

So we can tell ourselves that we look hideous, that we look unattractive, that we’re too fat, that we’re ugly… and the more we tell ourselves these things, the more we prove that those negative statements are true. Because we’re looking for things that prove our point. If we believe those negative things and hate our body, we’ll act in a certain way that proves it’s true. We’ll then turn it into reality.

Your thoughts create your reality.

What you think will determine how you feel. How you feel will determine what you believe. What you believe will determine the way you behave and how your body reacts. How you behave and act will determine your reality and how you experience the world.

What you think, you believe. However, you also believe what you think.

Just let that sink in for a moment 🙂

So, in order to change our reality and create a body we love, we need to change our thoughts and beliefs. We need to start thinking and believing more positive thoughts such as “I’m beautiful and sexy and I love my body”.

Now, you might be thinking “hang on a minute, I can’t just simply believe something that isn’t true!”. But you already believe that you’re not attractive/sexy/gorgeous enough, and that’s not necessarily true, right?! And if you think it is true, ask yourself: Can you absolutely know it’s true? Probably not. Because who says what’s true and what’s not? YOU. Nobody else. It’s all down to personal perception.

How to love your body more

If you decide to start thinking a positive thought, such as “I’m attractive, sexy and gorgeous and I love my body”, you’ll start to believe it. When you believe it, you might then start acting in a way that proves this is true. You might start making more of an effort and taking pride in your appearance. You might put more effort into doing your hair & makeup; you might start wearing more flattering clothes and colours that suit your figure and skin tone. This might boost your confidence and give you a spring in your step. This might then have an effect on those around you and they’ll start to notice you’ve got a new sparkle in your eye, and they’ll give you compliments. You’ll then prove it’s true.

So what would be a more helpful thing to think about your body?

Affirmations are a wonderful thing. An affirmation is a written or spoken positive statement affirming something to be true. When you repeat affirmations to yourself daily, you are basically teaching your brain to believe a new thought. But when saying affirmations to yourself, they must start with “I” and not “you”. You need to speak to yourself in the first person to believe the thought about yourself.

For example, by consciously thinking a positive statement, such as “I love my body and I love myself” you are rewiring your old negative thoughts of “I hate my body and I look unattractive” and creating a new reality for yourself.

Only once you start to believe the new thought, you will start to feel differently about yourself. You’ll start to behave in a different way and hold your body differently. It’ll then come much more naturally to start taking care of your body more, such as feeding it nourishing food, doing exercise you love doing etc. You’ll then easily and effortlessly create a new reality where you love your body and create your ideal body.

Check out my infographic below called “25 Affirmations to Love your Body”. Pick just a few that really resonate with you and say them out loud daily, with a smile on your face!

How I can help you further…

If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog and you’ve found it helpful, YAY! I’m so pleased!

I’m so excited that I do this for a living. I help my clients love their bodies more, not only through my Boudoir & Portrait Shoots but through Body Confidence Coaching.

Being confident in your body is absolutely essential to living your best life, being happy, healthy, and fulfilled. This will make sure you have love and passion for just being you, as you are.

I offer one to one coaching, online courses, and photoshoot packages. Please get in touch to book a free 30 minute chat so we can talk about options and how I could help 🙂

Ginny x