Love Yourself, Love Your Body

If there’s one thing that’s become clear to me over the last few years, it’s this:

Nearly every woman I met, work with, or assume is perfect… struggles with her own body image.

Every woman I’ve asked has admitted she has an issue with at least one part of her body, face, or appearance.

Loving my body has been a very difficult thing for me as well, as my weight fluctuates so much and i go from size 9 one year to size 16 the next…

I have been hating my body for such a long time……always criticizing it and wanting to have someone else’s body or a smaller size….when I should be worrying about my body’s health and not a number on a scale…….

I sabotage myself by buying clothes that don’t fit, the size is either too small or too big and doesn’t look good on me……Often, without even realizing it, I have a downright abusive relationship with myself. I tend to bark orders, judge, and degrade myself.

I need to STOP…..I am affirming that my body is perfect whatever size or shape, every mark and scar, every twist and turn, I love me…

Great affirmations I found online:

I am perfect, whole, and complete just the way I am

I feed my body healthy nourishing food and give it healthy nourishing exercise because it deserves to be taken care of

I love and respect myself

It’s okay to love myself now as I continue to evolve

My body is a temple. I want to treat it with love and respect.

My body is a gift.

Food doesn’t have to be the enemy, it can be nurturing and healing.

Life is too short and too precious to waste time obsessing about my body. I am going to take care of it to the best of my ability and get out of my head and into the world.

I will not give in to the voices of my eating disorder that tell me I’m not okay. I will listen to the healthy voices that I do have, even if they are very quiet so that I can understand that I am fine. I am fine.

 

I have read that sitting and attempting to reconnect to the present moment through breathing and mediation will help me become reacquainted with my mind and body.

Plus, it’s nearly impossible to hate someone once you truly get to know them. Therefore making it harder to hate my body…

I am going to try some meditating and see if it will help me foster a kinder relationship with myself and my body.

Meditation Exercise:
Sit with cross-legged and upright.
Place one hand on your heart, and the other on a part of your body you tend to fixate on.
Close your eyes and try to cultivate a feeling of love and acceptance — just love and acceptance — for that part of your perfectly imperfect body.
When you feel done, open your eyes, stare softly straight ahead, and try to focus on your breath for just five minutes.
If intense feelings surface, try to feel where they are in your body.
Let whatever feelings you’re having wash over you fully, if only for a moment, simply return to your breath.
Do this for five minutes in the morning and five minutes before bed.

I have also read and truly agree with making time to connect to your own body and touching your body in a loving way is crucial to having a healthy relationship with your body. Allot of women are ashamed to touch themselves and to love their bodies. If you only have orgasms with a partner, you will, on some level, always need to have someone on the outside affirming that you’re sexy and lovable. Masturbating helps you connect with what you want, and how damn fine you really are. Make a date with yourself, and if it helps motivate you, consider it exercise — it gets your heart rate up, flexes plenty of muscles, and has numerous mental and physical health benefits.

One of the most suffocating aspects of struggling with body image is that we all think it’s our own dirty little secret. You may even feel that if you don’t have a full-blown eating disorder you don’t deserve to talk about the ups and downs of your relationship with food and your body. This is wrong…

We need to talk about it and not just for ourself, but also for other women. After all, things have gotten mighty tangled: Because the language of female perfection needs to be corrected. We have allowed others to tell us what beauty is and what should be beautiful…..

Every time we give another woman permission to talk about her experience openly, we reclaim a little power from a society that tells us we should just grin and juice cleanse it or that we should only eat this, exercise exercise….must be skinny…

Like my reflection in the mirror, is a beautiful thing so is everyone else’s.

Love Vanessa 💜

Learn To Relax

Today I am going to talk about relaxing while on vacation. I get very, very anxious while travelling and in the past had a hard time relaxing while on vacation…

This vacation I decided to go with the flow…not check the weather before I go…not over pack….not schedule each day….I just showed up…

How many times have you returned home from a fantastic vacation, only to hear yourself telling someone that you’re so exhausted you need another one to recover? I want the fun without the exhaustion…

So this vacation I set some relaxing rules:

Relax Rule 1
I have read that limiting your technology
while on vacation is a huge part of being able to relax while you’re away from home. Not looking at my phone all the time… not checking my emails and purposely staying somewhere without a TV or radio….this has actually helped me……I haven’t watched any TV and have limited my phone usage.

Relax Rule 2
This trip I decided not to over schedule myself as I have a habit of that. I’m the type of person that while planning for a holiday, I want to do all of the research, see all of the sights, eat in all of the restaurants, have all of the fun… I think you can see where I’m going with this. This vacation I did none of this…and i am having an AMAZING TIME and also very relaxed…

Relax Rule 3
I also decided to buffer my vacation. I am flying home Saturday evening so I have a day to relax and get ready for work the following day. This gives me time to do all those un-fun, post-holiday tasks like laundry, grocery shopping………….this could be my best vacation ever….

Vacation can be relaxing and fun….

Love Vanessa 💜

Happy Easter Weekend

🐇🐇🐥🐥 Happy Easter Weekend Everyone 🐇🐥

Love easter time, all the yummy chocolate…pretty pastel colors of the decorations and eggs…and dinner with family and friends…

The anticipation of summer and the temperatures begin to get warmer…please please start to get warmer…

This Easter weekend I will be spending half of it in Rivers/Winnipeg, Manitoba (Friday/Saturday) and the other half in Vancouver/Burnaby, BC (Saturday/Sunday/Monday)….

How time flies when you are having fun with family on vacation…Happy Easter, peace, love and happiness to all my friends and family…

Love Vanessa 💜

Postcards/Mail

Today i am going to discuss letter writing…not sure why sending a postcard, a card and a letter has become a thing of the past…..

I love receiving a letter or card in the mail…it is sooooo exciting and it’s way better than always receiving bills or junk mail….

Birthcards…Christmas cards are the only times I receive cards and I love it………..and i keep them up wayyyyyyyy longer than I should cause they are so special to me…

And that one time I get a letter….well….I make a cup of coffee and get comfy on the coach and then open and read it…

The World Needs More Letters – not emails, but proper, handwritten letters.

I have letters from my Gram DesLaurier that I reread every once and a while and it’s like I can hear her talking even though she is no longer hear. I use to be so excited to receive her letters, she’d always send a little bit of candy money and tell me how proud she was of me and how much she loved me and missed me…and she’d write how happy she was to have received my letter and drawings..

I bought some postcards in Brandon, Manitoba yesterday that I am going to write on and mail out today.

So I am going to say no to texting, emailing and phone calling unless it is urgent!!!!!

Who am i kidding….i am going to at least cut back on so much texting and emailing and i am going to write letters to my loved ones, friends and family. I am going to keep enjoying the excitement and anticipation of receiving mail that is not looking for my money.

Love Vanessa 💜

Brandon, Manitoba

Good Morning and brrrrr.❄❄❄.😨…i am soooooo glad I have my winter coat and boats…

Today I am going to explore Brandon, Manitoba….by myself…can you imagine…lol….

Let’s see what fun times and adventure/trouble…NOT…that I can get myself into 🤗

Had a fantastic time with my cousins last night at Brown’s Social House..

Attempted to eat a ranch poutine burger with poutine…I am brave…

But it was delicious…..soooooo much gravy…mmmmmm…all was left was half the burger that I will be eating today..

Having such an amazing time visiting family…and I have laughed so hard over the past couple of days I think I am getting abs…🤔…..well might just be hopeful thinking…..

Love Vanessa 💜

Being Sick On Vacation

Well my poor cousin, Donna, took me to the hospital yesterday…how embarrassing…but the staff were awesome and I can say I truly experienced Brandon, Manitoba.

They gave me gravel that knocked me out midsentence and IV bags for the first time….plus the patients were making me giggle…wonder what were in those IV bags…

I think I had some bad sushi…so that’s off the menu for awhile…

But I have amazing cousins

Donna and Grant thank you so much for your kindness…means the world to me…..to make me feel at home and comfortable…making being sick not so bad….

Feeling better and I am on the mend so I can continue to enjoy my amazing vacation with family…

The key is hydration

And sleep

Going to go and enjoy the rest of my vacation…

Love Vanessa 💜

Travel

Today I am off travelling to visit family…
I’ll be gone until April…

I love to travel to new places whether in Canada or out, really doesn’t matter…

Love to discover new places…make new memories and laugh and have fun..

Especially when those memories include family…how fun is that….

I am all about adventures whether in your back yard or across the world..

Love Vanessa 💜

We Need To Stop

Today on my go train into work I was sadden…more like heartbroken..

All the garbage…..everyone once loved stuff and items that made people’s life convenient just disregarded and lost. Stuff made from the earth and which is destroying the earth…yet will never go back to the earth…

People are so destructive and selfish and companies have convinced us we need more, more and more and to get rid of the old…no appreciation of items and stuff anymore and people just throw it out or throw it over their fence and buy new…..when and where did this thought come from. What happened to pride in your neighborhood, your community, your world…

Why are we buying stuff that can not be recycled and why are we not demanding that companies provide this service.. why do we care so little about nature, when it is a necessity of life…

At our house we have separate garbage cans for glass, paper, plastic, aluminum, … wood, organic matter, natural fabrics, and synthetic fabrics, and rubber. I actual keep bottles, plastic veggie containers, egg cartons and other stuff and use it for my beauty products or cleaning products and use the veggie containers when I harvest my garden. The egg cartons can be used to start seeds or as a paint dish…RECYCLE! REVIVE! RERUN!

I am not perfect by all means but I am trying to make the world a better place one step at a time…and sorry for the rant…it is just disheartening to see on my way to work…..

When did it become okay to through your garbage over the fence…like out of sight out of mind…..

Mother nature has been sooooo patient…

Please I beg you start today….

Everyday….everyone of us has an impact on the world…I want mine to be life changing….world changing…..I know I can’t change others but I can change myself and led by example..

Let’s start today…let’s leave our foot prints and not our trash..

Lets clean up the world, by picking up one waterbottle, one piece of paper per day……let’s show the earth we love her..

Love Vanessa 💜

Luck

Happy St. Patrick’s Day…as I am possibly 1/6 Irish…possibly💚💚…I feel I should celebrate….so wishing everyone good luck and health today…. Everyone go out and have a green beer today and support a local Irish pub…

Today I would like to chat about luck..So tell me … do you feeling lucky? I feel very lucky…

I have build a “lucky mindset” that  works for me and not against me.    Whether I think the world conspires with me or against me , I am right!

Your views on luck can dramatically influence your success. Luck runs the spectrum from very good luck to very bad luck. Sometimes it really is about being in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time. 

I like to make my own luck. And make luck often…whether you call them blessings or luck…

“Depend on the rabbit’s foot if you will, but remember it didn’t work for the rabbit.“ – R.E. Shay

“Diligence is the mother of good luck.“ – Benjamin Franklin

“If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.“ – Henry Ford

“Luck is the residue of design.“ – Branch Rickey

“Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.“ – Earl Wilson

“May good luck be your friend in whatever you do and may trouble be always a stranger to you. May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light. May good luck pursue you each morning and night.“ – Anonymous

“Nature creates ability; luck provides it with opportunity.“ – François de la Rochefoucauld

“The day you decide to do it is your lucky day.“ – Proverb

“The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.“ – Tony Robbins

“Unlucky at cards, lucky in love.“ – Proverb

I think allot of people forget about luck and how lucky they truly are to wake up another day, to have love in their life, to just miss that big rain storm….

Happy St. Patrick’s Day🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

Good luck in life…Love Vanessa 💚

Only Compete With Yourself

Happy Wednesday… Today i am going to talk about compete….and to only compete with yourself….

When we compete, we aim to take from others what’s already been created instead of creating something ourselves. I dont want to be a look-alike….i am original and unique…to me this is not creativity. I don’t want to  become a slave to what we can get or bargain from others.

When we create, we become free.

When we step out of this game of competition, we can become creators. I am a CREATOR!!!!

Instead of looking at what we can take from out there or from others, we can sink back into our own consciousness and tap the unlimited storehouse of creativity that flows beneath us all. I feel the creative juices flowing already…..

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you. – Lao Tzu

Even Kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God. – Guru Nanak

An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it. – Maurice Maeterlinck

You can hate me but never be me. I’m me, myself and I…..and you can never compare yourself to me.

Girls are the worst at competition and not in a good way. They look to destroy their competition. Competing to get the guy or competing to get the attention. In the past I even had girls competing with me to get someone the better present…lol…I compete with noone but myself….and I do what I do out of kindness and love and for no over reason…I am a Woman…

Dont compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to the person you were yesterday and the person you will be tomorrow…

There is no need of justifying yourself to others, until you can justify yourself to your own conscience.  Be you and compete with yourself…

After everything above I am not knocking good, clean competition. If you look at any star athlete or actor/actress……, it may seem that they’re competing. But they’re not. They may have at one point of their career. But then something shifts. These people have risen above the competitive nature of the world and are straight up floooowwing with creative awesomeness.

I want to come from this place…… I want to know that I don’t need or even want what the other girl has…. it’s in the creation of it that adds so much value to it ….in our souls.

Love Vanessa 💜