“Did your mom ever tell you, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything’? She was right – and talking nicely also applies when you’re talking to yourself, even inside your head.”

~ Victoria Moran

Yesterday was just one of those I-looked-at-my-belly-in-the-mirror-and-it-made-me-sad days.

One of those I-wouldn’t-be-fat-if-I-just-worked-out-harder days.

It went even so far as being one of those I-really-hate-how-soft-my-body-looks days.

Have you ever lashed out such disdain at your sweet, unsuspecting self before?

When I started to get dressed, the sadness evolved into bitterness as my mind started to unleash even more ugly thoughts that in those moments seem unstoppable.

As my dear friend Hannah Marcotti  says, “Each day you rise is yours to design.” And here I was, choosing to be deep in self-loathing instead of self-loving; feeling ugly instead of feeling grateful; finding fault with everything instead of finding beauty in anything.

It was so hard for me to step outside of this vacuum of fierce judgment and return to being gentle with myself. Self-love should be intrinsic, essential to our very being, but it’s often not. On the brink of tears, I bravely looked at myself in the mirror again, and asked myself, “How do I stop hating myself?”

How do you stop hating yourself?

And like I had a brush with divinity in that moment, an email was waiting for me later in the day from the blog of Mama Gena, a beautiful being who is helping hundreds of women put an end to those internal messages of self-doubt and self-hatred we send ourselves from the moment we wake up in the morning until we put our heads on our pillows at night.

As Mama Gena put it yesterday, the antidote to self-hatred is in our hands. It lives inside the choices you make, every day. That I make, every day.

And then it came to me, but more like a whisper that was breathing me. Pleasure.  The antidote to self-loathing is pleasure. The antidote to self-loathing is to choose pleasure. Transcend all that damn cultural conditioning that makes it hard for women to accept and value themselves and choose self-love.

What a beautiful, gentle reminder. I want to show you ways to be gentle with yourself as well, to nurture that gorgeous beauty inside of you, to show you ways to incorporate pleasure into your every day, into your every way.

I created a course that is designed to do this called Slow. My purpose for creating this course is to help you rediscover pleasure, beginning with an honest look at our struggles with food, as a doorway to experiencing a life of joy. I’m bringing pleasure back.

The course deets:

When: Mondays from 7 to 9 pm, starting April 30th
Where: my home in Richmond Hill, Ontario
What: 8 weeks filled with sharing our stories, journal prompts and questions, creative activities to get your pleasure mojo flowing, and delicious food samples and preparation.
Who: Any woman who wants to deepen her self-acceptance and self-worth.
Price: $275

So, when you wake up tomorrow, what will you choose? Click here to choose pleasure.