I was shopping with a drop dead gorgeous woman I know and was shocked to find she constantly dresses to cover up her 'hideous' hips. It got me thinking.
What if you didn't have to change anything about yourself? The experts say that once you stop ‘fixing’ yourself, you find yourself free to invent an exciting, inspiring and fun life: a life where your hips, thighs and butt are perfect – whatever they look like. Let’s all unleash wild hip-appreciation, unbridled butt-acceptance and outrageous thigh-love – and reap the benefits.
Here's why you should love your hips, thighs and butt:
1. When you love your hips, thighs and butt, you exercise to honor your body, not to kill your inner Queen Latifah; and you watch what you eat to nourish your body, not to look like Megan Fox.
2. It’s easy! Eva Ritvo says you are 20% more beautiful to other people than you are to yourself. (I like the way she thinks!) When you look in the mirror, you see your physical form and you’re looking for flaws. When others see you, they also take in your personality, style, intelligence, sex appeal and wit—the whole you. So, without doing anything, you can now love your hips, thighs and butt 20% more.
3. The more you appreciate your body, the more positive you feel about yourself. When you feel positive about yourself, you attract positive, uplifting people. Exalt your butt and get great new friends!
4. When you are positive about yourself, others reinforce your views. It’s like compound interest on your savings, really. Give your thighs a small hug and get an ebullient deluge of affection back from the world.
5. I hate to break it to you but no one is paying as much attention to your looks as you think they are. They’re too worried about their own! Let the butt-bother go and you can focus on something productive instead – schedule your tax return, book in for a facial, mop the floor, organise your photos or go dancing.
6. ‘Most of us can see a beloved relative’s shape when we look at our bodies,’ says Pat Ballard. Don’t groan about inheriting your mum’s chubby cheeks or your dad’s complete bum-dearth. Instead, cherish Auntie Diz’s thighs or Oma’s haunches. ‘Be thankful your body is a constant reminder of someone you love,’ says Pat.
7. When you love your body, you can ground yourself in reality (tip: go to the park, mall or beach and look around at the people). You can scoff at advertisers peddling flesh and not product. You can laugh at the airbrushed portrayals of scrawny women with fake boobs who look like no one you’ve ever met in real life.
8. Your body is part of what makes you unique and special. If you looked like Kate Moss or Aretha Franklin, you’d have a whole different life (tip: if that sounds appealing, the problem is not your thighs, honey) – different friends, different clothes, different food favs and even a different ringtone on your phone. You just wouldn’t be you.
9. Some people use their weight worries as an excuse to avoid living a full life. Scary as it seems, if you let go the hip-hate, you’ll be free to do that meditation, learn that language, buy that motorcycle, go for that promotion or bag that man. Don’t use your body image as an excuse to spend your life huddled on the couch. Life – it’s yours. Get into it.
10. When you love your hips, thighs and butt, your inner voice doesn’t say ‘If only…’; it says ‘I feel sexy today!’ Laugh at your inner critic every time she pipes up with one of those cutting remarks (‘thunder thighs’, ‘lard arse’). You really can embed a new attitude by repeating it for 21 days. Tell yourself you feel sexy every day and in three weeks, chances are, it’ll be true.
11. Belly dancing – if you’ve got it, flaunt it. Ancient and natural, the music is a tangible energy alive inside you. You shimmy your hips, then undulate them. Your whole body is entwined with the sensuous rhythms, celebrating your gorgeous form and its connection with the earth. What’s not to love?
12. When you love your body, your priorities get real. Question: if you had a month to live, how important would the width of your hips be? Life is too short to hate your body. Ditch the shallow self-obsession and focus on the things that matter. (Tip: they’re probably not things.)
13. Dr. Patricia Koch, found that women who thought they were attractive had more sex, more desire and they orgasmed more easily. I love my butt, I love my butt, I love my butt…
14. If you love your body, you can stop fighting with it. Waging a war against flab or cellulite is never going to work. Once you put down the weapons of war (the insults, the torturous exercise binges, the starvation diets) and embrace the way your are, you can focus on nourishing and nurturing your body and give it a chance to cooperate with your wishes instead of fighting back. If nothing else, you’ll stop being so battle weary all the time.
15. When you love your body, you can treat it as if it is sacred. Because it is.
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