Sweater – Weather –
Posted: August 22, 2014 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: blogging, Body Image, compassion, cycling, family, fitness, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, image, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, Omaha, passion, perspective, pilates, psycology, running, whole foods, WOD, writing, yoga 23 CommentsTo lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself-
Throughout our lives, our daily experiences feed into the deep, old sense of shame that grips us. We assign this ongoing feeling of shame to parts of our bodies that we see in a negative light. Ranging from feeling awkward in front co-workers and friends, feeling our of place running on the treadmill, to race day failures or even minor training oversight(s) can be attributed to simply not looking “right” … Only serving to feed from our inner trough of self-hatred.
Have you ever blamed a poor performance, or failed to show up to an event because you were ashamed to be seen? Soul sapping thoughts that you are too “out of shape“, I don’t belong or deserve to be here with all these “fit” folks? When we lose confidence in ourselves, we instantly surrender to failure, instead of pursuing what our hearts passionately want to do. Why is this so?
…
My battered and beaten body is hands down, the biggest target of my ever so critical inner voice. No matter where I stand in life, it continually provides feedback of my many imperfections and keeps me from fully relaxing in my own skin …
Daily Meditation:
Each morning when we wake, we are afforded the beautiful opportunity to hide or reveal our true selves. When the harsh “voice” is telling us to keep our sweaters on or to stay home on race day … Be brave, be bold my friends – for you truly belong in the here and now.
Have a blessed weekend and please take care!
CultFit 
Ugh. Indeed. Great message for today. Every day. Always. Thank you. Be well and enjoy a poem over at http://yakkergirl.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/wilderness/
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful poem 🙂
Brilliant words. I’m always battling that inner voice that stops me from truly living a full and complete life. It’s hard. Alas, they say the first step is acknowledging that there is a problem in the first place, right? One day at a time.
A profound yet, gentle first step 🙂
I hope you had an amazing weekend – Take care!
Lovely. In my yoga teacher training, I learned to replace my inner critic with a new way of being. I went from “I am not good enough. No one would notice if I was gone”, to telling myself, “I am treasured. I am adventure.”
Just acknowledging what this inner critic says is so helpful in the healing process. Thank you for sharing!
My apologies for the last reply … I am touched that my humble little post resonated with you, and allowed you to pause, to reflect, on how amazing you are and how cool this world truly can be 🙂
Funny – the word “fit-ness” taking it apart I see how so many people judge their worthiness to be included, “to fit in” with how their bodies both look and feel.
Dreadful little word “fit-ness”, personally – I prefer Being 🙂
What great timing you have with this post! I’m so much better about this than I used to be, but still definitely have my days. Today was one of them. I went shopping for new bike shorts. My thoughts were not kind (understatement.) I swore off junk food in the dressing room. Of course I didn’t even make it home before breaking that promise.
I hope you had an amazing weekend and thank you for sharing a vulnerable moment in your life … There are two “things” I tend to avoid chatting about while training/helping other folks: Diet and appearance…. My theory (best discussed over a bottle of sangria) is that discovering our true selves is not found in a “fitness” magazine or in a weight loss book. But rather in these vulnerable, raw moments in our lives. Most of time we miss them, being too busy and what not, I’m certainly guilty of this at times. Anyways, I believe you know where I am going with all this … Take care this morning and do be well 🙂
I also need to say that that picture is almost cruel. I want to jump off that dock so bad I can’t stand it!!
Too late! … Cannonball!!!
Not Fair!!
Beautiful meditation – every day is an opportunity to hide or reveal our true selves. Also, on a completely different note – thank you for knowing the difference between ‘lose’ and ‘loose’ omg 🙂
Its not very often that I manage to pull together a sentence properly 😉
Wonderful post as always. Thank you for the great message 🙂
The message of true identify and authenticity is an important one to me 🙂
Ahhhh so true, I actually feel for the first time I can relate on having taken that step and embracing it. It is truly releasing not to feel that if my “fit” level slips so do I. For one of the first times I felt okay with not criticizing my self but telling myself how good I’ve been doing at what I HAVE been doing. Life goes in ebbs and flows and that’s okay
Its a wonderful step is it not? 🙂
Boy, I needed to see this today. Thank you. 🙂
No worries and I hope you have an amazing afternoon! Take care 🙂
This is a lovely piece about the inner critic. When our body becomes our focus for failure and not feeling comfortable it can lead us down some dark and dangerous paths. To just allow it, to let it be is such a gift….so simple, yet so hard to do 🙂
I simply could not agree with you more 🙂