Body Wise: How Pampering Myself Led to a New Life

by Enone
(Jerusalem)

Reader Post: It's so easy to forget the importance of being body wise.

A few years ago, I had the slow realization that not only was my life a shambles; I was living in downright chaos. I was unhappy, over weight, and nothing in my life was as I felt it should be. Being body wise was not even on the radar for me. I set out on a journey to fix the person I did not recognize in the mirror. I wanted to learn to love myself again, to respect myself again, and to accept myself again. As I considered my options, I realized that I spent all my time trying to accommodate other people and only indulged myself in guilty pleasures that did not enrich my life. I knew right then that what I needed to do was pamper myself in ways that led to positive changes, both on the inside and on the outside.

The first thing I did in my quest to become more body wise was to lose a lot of extra weight. I shed the emotional weight of my husband and about 4 dress sizes. I learned about co-dependency, why it was bad and how I had come to this place of enabling and excusing behavior that was inexcusable. I learned that I could not change my husband, but I could change myself. And then I did just that. I am so proud of the way that I've embraced being body wise. I became a new person with a new, sexy body and a positive outlook on the future. For me at that time, exercise was the ultimate in pampering myself and I did it every day. And soon, not only could I bear to look at myself in the mirror again, I was happy with what I saw.

Looking back, it can be hard at times to understand the place I was in back then. While I do accept my actions, I realize now how much I disliked the person I had become. I learned that the best way to pamper myself is to do something that will improve my life. I am embracing being body wise more and more every single day.