Why Self Love May Be The Ultimate Fountain of Youth
Like a majority of the American teenage girls I grew up learning how to compare, scrutinize and criticize every body part from my hair all the way down to the size of feet – and everything in between.
Not once did any of the teen and fashion magazines brainwash me into loving and accepting myself… just as I am. This behavior continued into the mid-late 20’s. In my 30’s after having kids the focus shifted to “what a bummer” that my body would never be the same again. In the 40’s we’re hyper focused on anything that has to do with aging, wrinkles or sagging lines.
Did we ever consider that the decades of criticism, comparisons and negative thought patterns might be causing some (if not a lot) of our aging? While this is just a theory, I will have to say from what I know about the physiology, psychoneuroimmunology, and the new findings in epigenetics and neuroscience, there may be far more truth to this than we realize!
For effective self-love and care, it’s important that we remember to seek alignment in all our human domains (mind, body and spirit). While currently we can’t seem to alter the fact that there is birth and death, science proves that we can alter everything in between – and the longevity and vibrancy of the lifecycle. What you think, say, ingest, how you sleep, and how you move or exercise affects each cell of your body (from the nervous system to the skin)… and gene expression. In other words, it’s all connected and it all counts!
Think about it, if we pause to quiet our minds from self criticism about our imperfection and tap into our higher consciousness about how amazing our bodies and beings really are, you immediately start loving yourself more fully – and actually alter the chemistry within your body by flooding it with positive chemicals and hormones that cause responses of healing, metabolism and repair.
After we align our thoughts, the next step is to align how we nourish our body, which is intelligently designed to respond to life affirming foods and treatments of respect, self-love and self-care.
Our mind will always guide us well as long as we are in charge of it and regulating it according to our highest will and direction….and that means to “love” and appreciate every part of yourself, right down to each organ and cell! Let’s start giving ourselves what we need instead of feeding ourselves a diet of criticism and foods that we don’t – and teach our children from an early age to do the same.
Perhaps you might be the new generation of parents that trains your children to break the cycle of dependency on self criticism, beauty magazines and eating disorders – and substitute in it’s place children that learn to nourish themselves from the inside out, and live balanced, resilient, loving, healthy and happy lives!
