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LOVE YOUR BODY, LOVE YOUR LIFE:
5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession
and Start Living Happily and Confidently
by Sarah Maria
Eating Disorders. Steroids. Plastic Surgery!
We'll do anything to look better -- and yet we still feel bad about how we look. Self-loathing has reached epidemic proportions. But there is a way to end self-destructive thoughts and behavior. In Love Your Body, Love Your Life, noted body-image expert Sarah Maria presents her proven five-step plan anyone can use to overcome negative body obsession (NBO). She helps you:
- Commit to change
- Identify and detach from negative thoughts
- Discover who you really are
- Befriend your body
- Find your purpose
- Love your body, love your life
"Read this book and you will discover that there is only one beauty, and you are that."
--Deepak Chopra
"There are countless women and men who suffer unnecessarily because they don't like their looks. Sarah Maria reveals that there is a way to feel great no matter what and she offers powerful tools to help you feel beautiful regardless of your current shape or size. Read this book and you will begin to love your body."
--Marci Shimoff, New York Times bestselling author of Happy for No Reason and featured teacher in The Secret
"Love Your Body, Love Your Life is a book written from the heart by a gifted author who has stepped into the transformational fire of learning to love herself and her body. Rich with life-changing information, each word charged with genuine compassion, this book provides the guidance, the hope, and the courage to let go of distorted perceptions that prevent you from loving your body. As a medical intuitive, I have witnessed the miracle of creating the health and the life one desires by merely learning to love oneself. I highly recommend this exceptional book. Job well done, Sarah Maria."
--Carol Ritberger, PhD, author of Healing Happens with Your Help: Uncovering the Hidden Meanings Behind Illness
"As a healer, I know that my patients' thoughts have the ability to determine their health or lack of it. Sarah Maria's step-by-step program will give you the tools you need to break free from negative thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors so that you can claim the health and the life you deserve. Sarah Maria shows you how to discover your unique, radiant, glorious beauty so that you can truly love your body and love your life. You can live a life of health, peace, joy, and abundance, and this book will show you how!"
--Dr. Darren Weissman, author of The Power of Infinite Love and Gratitude
Sarah Maria, author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently, is the founder of Break Free Beauty (www.breakfreebeauty.com), a company dedicated to helping people love and accept their bodies and discover the beauty that they already are. She is a body-image excerpt, speaker, and coach who speaks and writes on the topics of body image, self-esteem, health, success, and spirituality. Her mission is to empower people of all ages, races, and body sizes to embrace the bodies they have been given and learn to love themselves so they can live their dreams. She has studied and trained with many well-known spiritual and self-help teachers, including Deepak Chopra and physician Dr. David Simon, the co-founder and medical director of the Chopra Center for Well-Being in Carlsbad, CA. She lives in Carlsbad, CA.
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT 
Go Ahead and Pamper Yourself
By Sarah Maria
Gone are the days when self-pampering was considered overly-indulgent, self-aggrandizing or narcissistic, right? Well, if those days aren't quite gone for you, hopefully they will be gone by the time you finish reading this post. Here we go:
Many of us have been raised with what I call delusional thought patterns. These are any thoughts that prevent us from knowing and experiencing ourselves as the inherently beautiful, perfect, glorious beings that we are and always have been. These are the thoughts that make us think we shouldn't pamper ourselves. Maybe we don't quite deserve it; maybe we haven't worked hard enough. Maybe we will do it after we have finished this project; perhaps after we take care of everyone else. Maybe then we will pamper ourselves . . .
Here are some of the stories you might be telling yourself:
"Pampering myself is too expensive."
"I should be working instead of playing."
"I should be taking care of the kids."
"I don't really need whatever I think I need."
"I don't deserve to give myself what I really want."
"I should be exercising."
"I should be doing something productive."
Pampering, love, affection, adoration, as if any of this had anything to do with merit! It does not. You don't deserve to be pampered because you have earned it any more than a baby deserves to be fed, clothed, and changed. Consider a baby -- would you ever say "Okay, I am going to feed you because you have been a good baby." You would consider this parent to be completely deluded. You feed a baby simply because that is what should be done when a baby is hungry.
And yet this is the way we think we should love ourselves -- that love and pampering should somehow be based on merit. We think that somehow we should only pamper ourselves when we have done something to deserve it. Wrong! There is no deserving of pampering -- there is simply love longing to be realized. In the same way you would feed a hungry baby, so too should you give yourself what you need and honor the brilliance that you are. Love and pampering should be given to yourself with unlimited abandon -- joyously, endlessly.
And how do you pamper yourself? Give yourself what you need in each moment -- moment by moment. Do you need rest? Plan for rest. Do you need inspiration? Read the books that feed your soul. Do you need relaxation? Get a massage. Do you need clarity? Spend time in silence. Do you need support? Reach out to friends and loved ones. In each moment, life will tell you what you need. Listen. Listen and follow the guidance, the inner-wisdom that is always at your disposal. In every single moment, you have everything you need to give yourself what you need in that moment.
There is nothing more important than your well-being. The better you feel the more you can live the life you want to live. You cannot climb a summit if you are feeling depleted -- you cannot conquer your inner-demons with a fragile and exhausted mind. The most effective people are not those who have been denied love, either by themselves or by others. Study after study demonstrates that the healthiest, most effective people are those who love with abandon. Deserving to be loved, pampered, and cherished doesn't end when we become adults.
Consider this quote from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, who has influenced me most profoundly and whom you will see me quote often, since his wisdom is worth hearing again and again:
The unlimited is already perfect. You are perfect, only you don't know it. Learn to know yourself and you will discover wonders. All you need is already within you; only you must approach yourself with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors. Your constant flight from pain and search for pleasure is a sign of the love you bear yourself; all I plead with you is this: make love of yourself perfect. Deny yourself nothing -- give yourself infinity and eternity and discover that you do not need them; you are beyond.
You are love yearning for the perfectly lovable, and you, yourself, are the perfectly lovable that you long to experience. Give to yourself with unlimited abandon and you will discover that what you once considered selfish turns out to be the epitome of selflessness, for when you know yourself as love, you love everyone, unconditionally, unboundedly, eternally. You will discover that there never was anyone more deserving of love than you, no one more perfect than you, and no one to love other than yourself. Perfect your love of yourself and you will love everyone and no one perfectly.
©2009 Sarah Maria, author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently
THANKS TO CAITLIN AND MY PALS
AT FSB ASSOCIATES, I HAVE TWO COPIES
OF THIS WONDERFUL BOOKS TO GIVE AWAY!
--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
--EMAIL MUST BE IN YOUR COMMENT!!
--EACH ENTRY MUST BE A SEPARATE COMMENT
TO COUNT OR ELSE IT COUNTS AS ONE
+1 MORE ENTRY: GO TO SARAH MARIA'S WEBSITE HERE AND READ HER REAL LIFE STORY OF HER OWN BOUT WITH EATING DISORDER AND SELF-IMAGE. COME BACK AND COMMENT ON IT
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON IF YOU FOLLOW AND IF NOT, CONSIDER BECOMING A GOOGLE CONNECT FRIEND OF MINE IN THE LEFT SIDEBAR...SOMEONE WILL BE THAT #500 AND EARN A SPECIAL PRIZE.(IF IT IS YOU, PLEASE COMMENT TO LET ME KNOW AND CHECK)
6 PM, EST, OCTOBER 30
15 comments:
I grew up with negative body images and social anxiety disorder so I always felt I was being judged. I am better now but occasionally give in to those feelings. Everyone should be able to feel comfortable with themselves. I'd love to read this book.
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
GFC follower
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
I think society places entirely TOO mcuh emphasis on everyone being model thin. Even young girls. Not everyone is meant to be stick thin!!
mlawson17 at hotmail dot com
I am a google follower...
mlawson17 at hotmail dot com
Looks like a great book. I'm not entering. I just had to read about it! Nice post, Karen!
HUGS
Kelly
I totally agree with her. I have a hard time pampering myself because I always feel like I should be doing something else!
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net
I follow.
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net
I think Sara Maria is quite right. We need to pamper ourselves and feel good about who we are. Long gone are the days of excuses.
I'd really love to read and own this book.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
Sarah Maria's story was very painful to read, because my own life paralleled hers. The only difference was she was not fat as a youngster. I did need to lose weight. I commend her recovery and wanting to help other women. I would love to read her book.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
I would love a shot to win. I think books like this are so important. I agree that we need to make sure we are not depleted and to pamper ourselves. The better we are to ourselves the more we have to offer to others.
I am definitely guilty of thinking I don't deserve any pampering because I have better things to do. I'd love to learn how to get past thoughts like these!
jgbeads(at)gmail(dot)com
I follow through Google.
jgbeads(at)gmail(dot)com
I have done some very strict dieting several times in my life. I am so glad I never got to the point that the author did. I am an inch shorter than she is and I can't imagine how skinny 100 lbs. would be!
jgbeads(at)gmail(dot)com
I've been telling myself lots of those "stories you may have been telling yourself." Would love to read this!
janemaritz at yahoo dot com
Who hasn't grown up with some type of hang up about their body! Sad isn't it. I loved that just because we're now adults doesn't mean we don't need pampering.
Dutchlvr1(at)aol(dot)com
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