A few weeks ago while at my favourite place to shop - nope not the scrapbook store - my local Chapters/Indigo... I came across this book which immediately caught my attention. I am quite positive that some or even most of you have seen, read, heard of this book... but apparently I've been living under a rock (or this book has been hiding their) because it is the first time I have seen it! Another example to me of everything happens at the right time... for the right reasons.
Simple Abundance - A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
by Sarah Ban Breathnach
This book has turned out to be one of my favourite purchases ever! Written between 1991 and 1995 it hit the top of the New York Times Best Sellers List and stayed on the list for 2 years while women all over the world purchased this book for their moms, daughters, sisters, and every female in their life. In 2005 It was updated slightly and republished and it is still so relative and full of life lessons that it inspires me to wake up and read my daily inspiration - it is the first thing I do every morning! A book that celebrates living by your own light - written to fill the appetite of the starved modern woman for daily inspiration.
I will be starting a new Sunday feature here where I will highlight my favourite daily essay from the week... how I'm going to pick just one will be hard - this week alone 4 pages resonated so deeply with me that I keep reading them over and over. (maybe I will have to share them all!)
I've shared here - I'm really trying to loose weight be healthy once again... and as luck would have it - quite a few of the essays this week really helped motivate me and helped me realize that this journey is more of an emotional one as much as it is a physical one.
I really hope you enjoy this feature: It is such an important part of me right now and I want to share it with you all. Here is my first sharing:
April 12: Learning to Love and Honor Your Body
The body is a sacred garment. It's your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor. - Martha Graham
Which comes first, learning to love our bodies or possessing a positive body image? Either way, it works. If you don't possess a positive body image - and most of us don't - learning to love your body can help you develop one. "If you can learn to like how you look, and not the way you think you look" Gloria Steinem assures us "it can set you free."
The time has come of us to realize that until we work on increasing our self-esteem by loving ourselves in small ways, we can't begin changing ourselves for the better in big ways. We must start by choosing to break the self-destructive cycle of unrealistic expectations, especially our own.
Starting today, shun the worlds ideal of beauty, because it's constantly changing. Cleopatra longed for varicose veins, Middle Age beauties padded their bellies. Don't wait for the world to celebrate you. Carve your own niche. Focus on what's great. Forget what's not. Find joy in your own reflection. Instead of obsessing about a body that's impossible to achieve without a personal trainer, begin to discover how you can feel better about living in the one you now inhabit.
Learn firsthand the transforming power of nurture over nature. Nourish your body with healthy food and pure water. Slow down and remember to breathe before taking a bite. Breathe out stress and negativity, breathe in oxygen and positive energy. Rediscover how marvelous it is simply to move: stretch, dance, walk, run, jump, skip, play, embrace. Pamper your dody with comfortable clothes, quiet moments, and soothing beauty rituals.
"A woman's relationship with her body is the most important relationship she'll every have. More important than husband, lover, children, friends, colleagues. This isn't selfishness - it's just fact." health and fitness expert Dana K Roesch tells us. "This body is, quite literally, our vehicle for being - for giving, for loving, for moving, for feeling - and if it doesn't work, it's fairly certain that nothing else is our lives will work. either.:"
Today, instead of hating your body, make peace with it. Choose to consciously love and honor the scared garment spirit provided for this lifetime's journey.
Have a great week!
If you would like more information on this book or on the Author you can check out her website Sarah Ban Breathnach: Simple Abundance. I encourage you to purchase this book on your own... so inspirational.
