When my baby nephew, Danny Kazer was born, I entered into a whole new world of perception.  Never before had I been in the presence and full immersion of a human being that new, fresh, perfect, peaceful, born under God, my brother and sister in laws little miracle.  All of the books I've been reading hold the same theme…that we ARE all already perfect, as children of God, expressions of Himself, beings of love, vibrations of light, miracles on this earth.  Seeing Danny in this light, exposed me to what I have been doing to myself for years, and what I've allowed others to do.  I realized that the act of doing this to myself CAME FROM the act of others doing it to me.  Before the pressures of ‘fitting in', I can recall back to my early years of age 5, when I'd look down at my hands, at myself in the mirror and trip out on the same thing ‘I can't believe I'm me', as if it was a privilege, I was more than enough at that point, and NO I wasn't hallucinating.  Perhaps that was childhood meditation.  I saw the beauty in being alive at a young age until I grew into hormones and hence the ‘not enough' stage, in which I believe many of us are still stuck.

The earliest I remember perceiving myself as ‘not enough' was when I was 12 years old…my classmates poked fun of my nose.  Then when I was 15, I wasn't fast enough on the soccer field; at 17, my face was spewing with huge pimples, that have left deep scars on my face, along with the insecurity of their appearance.  At 19, I began pinching the sides of my belly, perceiving fat as ‘gross', and hence my entire being was ‘ugly'…through my own eyes.  No one told me I was fat…the media told me I was fat, relative to the rail thin models on the cover of Vogue.  My quest to be perfect was ingrained at an early age, but to my knowledge, other than the very few souls who made fun of my nose, no one else told me I was fat, zitty or any of these other things.  I TOLD ME I WAS IMPERFECT.  I let the few people who ridiculed me overshadow the thousands who have told me I was beautiful.  Then I set sail to in turn judge others, and as a result, feel as though I was incessantly being judged. Does this sound familiar?

It comes at a perfect time in my life that this message finds me…engrossed in the beauty that is Thailand, I purchased the book that I plan to use in my yoga healing sessions upon my return.  It is my greatest hope that this message finds you in a time of need…not a need for material things, but a need for love.  Love for yourself, and hence everything around you. When you judge yourself less, you judge others less, and beauty begins to emanate from everything!  It's always here, you just can't see it behind lenses that chose to see ugly, rather than beautiful, hate rather than love.

Since embarking on my journey to love and accept myself the way I am now and always, I see love all over the place, and less negativity.  I feel less judged since I am judging others less.  Particularly, for those who are in my TLS Eat Right for Life groups, if you're struggling to lose weight after all of the tools and education my program has equipped you with, I encourage you to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if you GENUINELY love the person looking back at you, at WHAT is looking back at you…can you see the beauty that is yourself?  If not, this message is a gift from Don Miguel Ruiz to me to you!  These words are meant for you, right now, you ‘need' to hear them.  Believe them, repeat the prayer everyday until the words grow to be true within yourself.

~”The physical body is like an animal that is completely loyal to us.   It takes us wherever we want to go; it gives us all the pleasure of life: eating drinking, or just running on the beach and playing.  And what do we do?  We abuse our physical body, we judge our physical body, we are ashamed of our physical body, and our physical body suffers.  Nobody abuses our physical body more than we do.  We treat our pet dog or cat better than we treat our own body.  We are the ones who are not loyal to our body.

I used to judge my physical body all the time.  When I looked at my body in a mirror, I used to think, “Oh, no, I don't like it.”  Can you imagine how selfish it is not to like your own body when your body does everything it can for you?  Today, I love my physical body.  I'm not ashamed of my body at all.  I am generous with my physcial body, and I give it whatever it needs.

Your physical body loves you unconditionally.  Even if you judge your body, even if you refect it and don't like it, your body is completely loyal to you.  Even if your body is getting old or feeling sick, still it is doing the best it can.  Just knowing this is enough for you to fill your heart with gratitude for the figt of your physical body.

Today I propose that you treat your physical body just as you would treat a precious loved on in your life.  Stop being selfish with your physical body, and give it whatever it needs to be healthy and happy.  Can you do that?

Today is a new day, a new beginning for you to give gratitude to your physical body for everything it does for you.  When you learn to love your physical body, every activity can become a ritual of gratitude where you fully express the joy to be alive.  Every time you wash your body can be a prayer of gratitude to God.  Every time you eat can be more than a prayer; it can be a celebration of life because you are giving food to God so that life can keep going.  Beginning to day, you can change your relationship with your physical body, and you whole life will change…”