We're so excited to announce our Love Body Basics Series!  We wanted to give everyone an opportunity to learn the basics of Love Body's Soul-Centered Weight Loss Program. 

Love Body speaks directly to your core desires, directly to the underlying needs that fuel the behaviors related to weight gain. This yields real transformation and lasting change.  As a bonus side effect, the practices we offer in Love Body Basics are the same practices we're using to stay grounded and manage stress during the pandemic.

Join us for one session or the whole series.
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Session 1: Love Yourself
This session will address many of the underlying barriers to healthy weight, including shame, worthiness and self-criticism. We will share practices for self-compassion, mindfulness and embodiment that can easily be incorporated into everyday life for real results. 

Session 2: Eat Real Food
Learn the basics of conscious eating, un-dieting, and foods for mental resilience. Start to develop a new, joyful relationship with food, fueled by your body's inherent wisdom and your soul's deepest desires. Free yourself from the deprivation, guilt, shaming, and calorie-counting related to dieting.

Session 3: Move Your Body
This session focuses on reframing your mindset around workouts and exercise, placing enjoyment first. Learn to approach movement in an exploratory way, with playfulness and curiosity. We will end with a gentle movement sequence to first uplift and inspire and then calm and soothe.
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Session 4: Connect with Source
Meditation takes us inside, to the source-place of our wisdom, to our limitless wellspring of love, joy and freedom. When we meditate regularly, we are able to bring these capacities to the surface of life. In this session, you will learn some of the science behind meditation and how it actually changes your brain. You will also learn a basic meditation practice that can easily be incorporated into everyday life.

We hope to see you at one or all sessions!

Schedule & Registration

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photo: United Nations, Unsplash

Do you ever feel uncomfortable in your own body?  Do you ever feel like a foreigner in your own skin?  Do you ever think, "If I just lost 5 (or 10 or 50) pounds, all of this discomfort would go away."?  The other day, I caught myself in this exact situation.  I had gained a few pounds for whatever reason and I felt really uncomfortable.  My first thought was, "Make it go away!".  But then I took a step back and asked myself, "What is this really about?"  Oftentimes, I mistake weight gain as the cause of my discomfort, when it's actually a symptom of my discomfort.  When I figure out the real cause of the discomfort and attend to that, the weight typically drops back off.

I find myself experiencing these little fluctuations here and there and I always have to pull myself back from my first response, which is "Must lose weight!".  Instead of engaging in unhelpful dieting behavior or punishing exercise, what I really need to do is attend to the mental or emotional discomfort that is present for me at that particular time, the thing that created the symptom of weight gain.  Most recently the discomfort was related to financial stress.  Once I attended to that issue and the emotions surrounding it, my body fell back into its natural rhythm and comfortable weight.

For most of us, it's oftentimes much more complicated than a temporary situational discomfort like financial stress.  Typically, there are a number of discomforts that we're facing simultaneously, some of which we can't even identify.  And that's why it's so important to be with yourself, to be with your body, as it is right now, and to take a moment to close your eyes, to feel yourself breathing, and to ask, "What is the real discomfort here?  What needs attending to?"  

Many folks are experiencing a great deal of nonspecific discomfort right now due to the uncertainty of our collective situation in regards to the pandemic, and this can lead to a variety of symptoms, one of which may be weight gain.   As always, the starting point I offer is, "Find the ground.  Find your breath."  That will drop you into the present, into your body, into a place where you can tap into your inherent wisdom and listen for some guidance.  What is covering your light?  What is inhibiting you from expressing your love?  What is limiting your soul from manifesting its true desires?  

We're here if you need us.  

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Beneath every behavior is a desire.  Whenever I find myself trying to lose weight, I notice the same imagery appearing in my "thinner me" fantasies, images of me dancing in a group of people.  Over time, I came to realize that I wasn't looking to weigh less, I was looking for fun and connection.  Underneath my behavior of trying to lose weight was a deep and sincere desire for meaningful connection and true enjoyment. 

There's nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight.  The question is, why do you want to lose weight?  What do you imagine it will bring you?  How do you imagine it will change your life?  What are you really looking for?  Everyone is different, but many of us share the same soul desires: love, purpose, connection, freedom, joy.  Perhaps one of these speaks to you more than the others.  Perhaps one of these is the true motivation for many of your behaviors.  

One way that you can begin to understand why you do what you do is to pay attention to the imagery.  What are you doing with your body in your fantasies of a thinner you?  What is happening around you?  What is your soul crying out for?  And then, work with that desire directly.  That's what we do here at Love Body.  We speak directly to your soul desire and we nourish that desire in order to create real transformation and lasting change, not just a surface level change in your weight.

So back to connection and fun, which happen to be my strongest soul desires, and perhaps yours too.  In a sincere effort to nourish these desires, I put my energy and effort into creating opportunities for fun and connection, especially right now, as we navigate the anxiety, uncertainty, isolation and craziness of these times.  One of those opportunities is teaching something just for fun in my yoga classes.  For the month of November, in my Tuesday/Thursday classes, that "just for fun" thing is the splits.  Yes, the splits!  There is absolutely no need to be able to do the splits in order to be a successful human.  But, it's fun!  It can be fun to challenge yourself to try something new, even if that thing seems so ridiculous and out of reach.  It doesn't matter at all if you ever end up doing the splits in my classes; it just matters that you try and have fun trying.  With. Other. People.  Connection and enjoyment.  You can register for the Tuesday/Thursday splits classes and other classes here.  We have both in-person and virtual options right now.

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Each day, we get to choose.  We choose how to engage with life.  We choose how to engage with ourselves.  We choose how to use our energy.  Where is your energy going?  Are you depleting your resources by using your energy to nourish the standard, to feed the status quo, to keep in place the structures that dictate how a woman should look, act, think and feel?  Or are you using your energy to nourish your soul, to enliven your being, so that you are meeting life from a place of love, joy and freedom?

What sets Love Body apart from other methods of weight loss is that we focus on nourishing the soul, not the standard.  We want women, all women, to enjoy the experience of living in a body.  In order to do that, we must speak to what you desire most.  What is it that your soul is crying out for?  Love.  Freedom.  Joy.  Purpose.  Connection.  Belonging.  Creativity.  We start by bringing that experience into the body.

Start where you are.  Be with yourself and with your body as your are right now.  Feel the weight of your seat on the chair or the sensation of your feet on the ground.  Feel your breath wash through you.  Effortless breath.  The burning of your soul's desire always exists within you.  It may feel like a raging fire yearning to shine forth or it may feel like a quiet, forgotten flame waiting to be sparked.  Awaken your soul's desire through your breath.  Send it through your physical being via the breath.  Start to illuminate your inner self with your deepest longing.  That's it.  Start there.  No diet.  No deprivation.  No calorie counting.  We definitely speak to food and nutrition and movement, but start with your soul.  Start with your breath.  Go inside.  Find and nourish what is most in need of your attention.  This will yield the most powerful and lasting results.

There is so much more to the Love Body Method.  This is just a starting point.  Start by directing your energy inward, to nourishing the soul, not the standard.  And let us know what your soul says.  You can share it in the comments.

We'll be back next week with more.

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photo: Sep, Unsplash

Without even realizing it, most of us participate in some level of morphing, adjusting, shifting, severing, ignoring, depriving, or altering in order to fit into the container labeled "This is what a woman should be".  There are very specific cultural norms that dictate how a woman should look, feel and behave, as well as what she should want from life.  When the light of awareness shines through the cracks of the box we have been keeping ourselves in, we can ask ourselves, "Do I actually want this?  Is this me?  Is this how I want to continue living my life or is my soul crying out for something else?"

We at Love Body engage in soul-centered practices, meaning, our practices are rooted in feeding your soul's desire, not the cultural norms.  At every turn, we give you the opportunity to ask yourself, "Is this thought/action/behavior in service of my core purpose or is it in service of some arbitrary standard that I had no part in creating?  Am I nourishing my soul or am I trying to fit myself into a box?"

So, are you keeping yourself small?  Are you trying to change your body, beliefs, thought patterns, life trajectory or desires to fit someone else's standard, to fit in someone else's box?  If so, in what way?  Feel free to share something you noticed about yourself, whether subtle or blatantly obvious, some way that you are participating in keeping yourself or others in boxes.  Let us know in the comments.  Then, stay connected to Love Body as we explore a variety of ways to nourish the soul, not the standard.

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magnet on my sister's fridge

Flooded with emotion and sensation?  Feel like you're gonna scream?  Dance it out, bitch.

Trouble focusing, concentrating, completing tasks or even forming complete sentences?  Dance it out, bitch.

Experiencing stress, discomfort, numbness, paralysis, confusion, doubt, uncertainty, pain, overwhelm?  Not sure where it's coming from or what to do about it?  Dance it out, bitch.

When in doubt, move your body.  You'll feel better.

It's one of the three things we do really well here at Love Body:

1) Eat real food
2) Move your body
3) Connect with source

And we wrap them in the loving support of a community dedicated to awakening.

We're here.

Two weeks ago, my friend lent me her copy of You Were Born For This: Astrology for radical self-acceptance.  The author, Chani Nicholas, says, "Astrology is a relentless reminder that we are the way we are on purpose."  This statement took me back about 6 years to an Ayurveda workshop in which the teacher mentioned that everyone has a different makeup, a different constitution, and "it's not a problem."  

Who you are is not a problem that needs to be fixed.  Yes, we all have things we are working on.  If we are paying attention and engaging with life, we are growing.  If we are listening, we are learning and evolving.  Your eccentricities, assymetries, and idiosyncrasies are not things that need to be solved, changed or eradicated.  You are you.  Embrace you.  And do the work to be the most loving you.  Eat real food.  Move your body.  Connect with source.  Engage with others.  Be of service.  Listen.  Learn.  And most of all, have compassion, both for yourself and for others.

You cannot love if you don't love yourself.  You cannot love yourself if you don't accept yourself.  You cannot accept yourself if you think that who you are is a problem.  And if you think you are a problem, try a little self-compassion.  Restate negative self-talk with kindness and appreciation, the way you would speak to a child or friend who is struggling.  Acknowledge that you are human and that struggling, mistakes and suffering are part of that experience.  You're doing ok.  And even if you're not doing ok, you can be ok with not being ok.  You can have compassion for yourself in your not-okay moments.

Looking for more self-compassion tools and techniques?  That's what this whole weekend retreat is about.  Hope you can join us!    

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Take a moment to think about your biggest fears...

Whatever words you used to describe them, for most of us, our biggest fears boil down to fear of death and fear of not being loved.  The fear of not being loved is so profound that we will do almost anything to avoid it.  We put up walls to avoid vulnerability, we sabotage our relationships, we avoid saying what we really mean or revealing who we really are, we escape into our addictions, we people please, we avoid risks because if we f*ck up, then people won't love us.  Even fear of public speaking is a fear of not being loved; we're afraid of looking silly, being ostracized, not being part of the loving group anymore.

So how can we begin to counter this tremendous fear?  I don't think the answer will surprise you.  By cultivating a deep and sincere love for ourselves, we are bolstered against the onslaught of, "What if they don't like me?!  What if they don't love me?!"  It starts with self-compassion, loving yourself even if you mess up, even if you're struggling.

By meeting yourself with kindness and appreciating who you are, flaws and all, you begin to lay an unshakable foundation of self-love.  You bolster your ability to meet the challenges of life with grace and ease.  You go out into the world with an open heart, knowing that you will mess up, knowing that you will be hurt, and knowing that you will still be ok.  You will still be loved.  By being compassionate with yourself, you expand your courage.  You expand your joy.  You expand your life.

Begin with the simple practice of speaking to yourself with kindness.  Speak to yourself the way that you would speak to Eliot, the baby bunny (pictured above.  My sister and niece got her last week).  Kind, gentle, nurturing, understanding, encouraging, appreciative of your own cute fluffiness that you bring to the world, forgiving of your unavoidable bunny flaws and mistakes, empathy for your suffering, love for your essence.

And if you want to dive deeper into the practice of self-compassion and self-love, we wholeheartedly welcome you to join us for our virtual weekend retreat September 26-27.

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This is my friend Michelle just prior to our beach adventure yesterday.  She's holding a jar of delicious jackfruit/tulsi/ashwagandha tea that she made for all of us.  Her mere existence makes me happy.  Her sheer presence is her worth.  She doesn't have to do anything to earn it.  No delicious tea, fun hats, or impressive accomplishments required.  Just being. 

I was talking to Michelle and Tara the other day and Tara and I both admitted that we used to draw our worth from academic achievement.  We both did well in school and were always considered to be "smart".  Our good grades and praise for those grades made our sense of worthiness soar.  The problem with that, and with any external source of worth, is that, as soon as the external source is gone, the sense of worth goes with it.  As soon as I left academia, I had an identity crises.  If I'm not the smart girl, who am I?  What is my value? 

It took a long time to re-establish my sense of worthiness from an internal place.  It took a long time to realize that all of my external feedback sources of worth (career achievements, praise from friends or co-workers, compliments on my appearance, etc.) were actually hindering the expansion of my own self-love.

So how do we establish that sense of unwavering and inherent worth, regardless of positive or negative external feedback?  It starts by being with yourself in a compassionate and nonjudgmental way.  Last week we shared a simple self-compassion practice that you can do at any time.  You can read or re-read that here.  And you can learn even more practical techniques for fostering self-compassion, self-love and self-worth in our upcoming virtual retreat.  This is basic, how-to-be-a-person stuff that we just don't learn in a traditional education.  And it is absolutely essential.  I'm so excited to share it with you. ​