Have you ever asked yourself if you simply live with a body or if you actually live in your body?

Have you?

I bet not.

Some of you will probably roll your eyes and say: what a silly question! I have a body. Of course, I live with it and I live in it. What’s the difference? What’s the point?

And a few years ago, I would have been with you; dismissing this thought, moving on and thinking about more important things like, say, losing weight, forcing my body to exercise more than it wants to, pinching my fat, crying and wishing I looked different.

And that, my love, is exactly the point. 

I was living with a body, looking at it from the outside – completely ignoring my body’s hunger and satiation signals, willing it to fit into a box it just doesn’t belong, belittling it, torturing it and entirely mistrusting my body’s wisdom.

I was so perfectly detached from my body that my self-image was fully distorted. Even at my thinnest weight, I saw myself as fat, ugly and “too much”.

I lost all trust in myself and forgot what beauty and life actually meant to me. Instead, I believed that once I was skinny enough, I’d be happy. I was certain that once my body looked like Heidi Klum’s, I’d be successful. And I was convinced that once I reached a perfect weight, I’d finally begin to love myself.

Surprisingly, none of this happened.

Why? Because I never ever looked within. I never asked my body what it wanted, needed to survive and thrive. I forgot that live is about living now and not in the future.

I forgot that my body could be and should be my home.

And I know that you have forgotten too. 

And that’s why I’ve devoted today’s edition of Love Yourself Friday to returning home to your body and begin to feel yourself again.

Remember that touching your body is essential in order to be at peace again. So, take a few moments today in order to experience yourself again.

In the comment section below, tell us what happened when you experimented with touching your body. How did it feel? Were you scared? Excited? Did it feel good or bad? 

If you want to go a step further and declare that starting today, you’ll begin to live in your body, then share it on Twitter.

“Are you ready to join me and begin living IN your body? @theannesophie will get you there. http://bit.ly/19mN4FZ” [Click to tweet]