How to Truly Appreciate Your Postpartum Body

May 05, 2023

How reframing your beliefs about your body can ignite a sense of gratitude and appreciation that you’ve never felt before…about yourself!

I remember the day so clearly. When I realized I had gained 49 pounds for the first time in my life.

In a world with so much going on, it seems trivial that I was so devastated about gaining 49 pounds. But I felt so far from myself (you know that feeling of completely losing your identity in motherhood?). I went from touring the world as a dancer and athlete, to literally not recognizing my body anymore.

But what exactly was I so upset about?

👉🏽Was it the weight itself?

👉🏽Was it the way my clothes felt?

👉🏽Did I really not recognize myself?

The question is a bit loaded. And to be honest, the reason why I felt that way didn’t matter once I realized one important thing:

I was judging myself and my body more than anyone else was.

I had literally grew life within me (survived first trimester fatigue), birthed an entire human, my shifted organs went back into place, somehow magically I wasn’t walking funny after pushing a bowling ball through a straw, I then got pregnant again when my son was 5.5 months, and did it all again…

And I couldn’t even find it within myself to acknowledge any of that because I was judging my body so hard — based on what you might ask?

Rock with me on this one…

For so long as a dancer with an athletic build, I was told (especially in the Ballet world) that I wouldn’t make it because I didn’t have the right physique. And for years, I acted as if someone else’e opinion about my body was somehow factual. It impacted me my entire dance career…

Oh yes, I should mention that I worked non-stop as a professional dancer — athletic build and all.

But somehow I was still hung up on some false narrative that someone else gave me (that I accepted and believed) well into my adult years.

So what was my real issue?

I was holding on to a belief system that I didn’t ask for nor that I wanted, and I was reacting in my life as if it were my truth.

So when I looked at this new womanly body I had, with all it’s curves and stretch marks, and thickness, and just…got damn glory!…I hated it. And I felt like it wasn’t me!

So then, who am I?

👉🏽Am I just what I see?

👉🏽Don’t we always tell little kids it’s about what’s on the inside?

👉🏽So then why the f*ck did I hate my body so much?

👉🏽Why didn’t I feel sexy?!

👉🏽Why couldn’t I acknowledge how much this body had done for me and my baby?

👉🏽Why couldn’t I be grateful for how much this body had protected me over the years?

I believed I (me and my identity) was my body.

My body is an accumulation of many things: what I eat, where I’ve been, the energy it’s surrounded by, my sleep…you catch my drift.

And the moment I believed I was my body, this was the moment I felt like I didn’t know who I was anymore because of the way my body looked.

And then one day it hit me like a ton of bricks. I am NOT my body. I’m not even what my thoughts tell me I am. I am something so much more profound, with so much life and ecstasy.

And I wasn’t tapping into her because I was so busy believing that the way my body looked was who I was. I truly believed that my body was my identity.

Now I wouldn’t dare act like all of a sudden I was loving that I couldn’t fit my clothes anymore. I was still healing physically, emotionally, energetically (and healing through my postpartum depression). But, ya girl was starting to feel better and better every single day.

And the less I felt like my identity was my body, this was the precise moment where I was more in awe of what this body had done...and I was more grateful for being here — existing in this body.

If you struggle with feeling like yourself in your body, take a second to acknowledge something very profound and earth moving...

You are not your body.

You are so much more (deep within and deep without), as you are connected to the infinite, the cosmos, the sun, stars, water, and moon.

You are not a limited being. And once you see that you are more than just your body, you are able to separate your identity from your body bit by bit.

And with each bit of separateness you have from your body, the more gratitude you feel for existing in your body.

Gratitude is more than just a catchy word.

It is your most powerful asset, especially when healing in postpartum and evolving your body through it as well.

Gaining weight, not feeling like yourself, not feeling sexy in your skin, are all valid and important; not to be minimized in any way! How you feel is important! And you shouldn’t feel ashamed to share honestly.

But the next step is to acknowledge that just because you feel something and think something about yourself, it doesn’t make it true!

Your body has gotten you through so much! And your body just allowed you to grow a human, birth that human, and sustain life for that human. That is something out of this world! It’s so incredible that there aren’t really words to express how insanely mind blowing this is!

And this is the body you are experiencing life in.

You can choose to hate it and judge it, or you can first acknowledge how much it has done for you.

Gaining weight doesn’t change who YOU are. Because you are not your body.

👉🏽Give yourself some much needed grace today.

👉🏽Remember all that you have done to get to this point.

👉🏽Recognize all that your body has done for you.

👉🏽And find gratitude for being able to experience this life with this beautiful body you were blessed with.

It is beautiful. It is healing! It is full, colorful, round, squishy, droopy, firm, up, down, wide, thin…it’s everything and all things.

Allow it to care for you. This means you must care for her. And this care starts from within.

In order to change anything on the outside, you must first go inward.

Thank your body.

Feel the energy of your body.

And when you look in the mirror, be grateful for this body you are existing in.

You are beautiful! You are beautiful. Got damn girl! YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

What you should do next:

#1) Subscribe to my newsletter below for weekly tips, inspiration, tools, and truthful information to help you feel more confident and ready for your journey into and throughout motherhood.

#2) Click here to receive a FREE copy of my #1 most downloaded book: Birth Goddess. This book offers my top 10 tips to have an empowered and peaceful labor & childbirth.

#3) Start your course today! Join other birthing goddesses just like you who are stepping into their power and experiencing incredibly peaceful, trauma-free childbirth. After working with over 3,000 moms, I can honestly say there is something here for every one ;)

#4) Visit the Freakuency Fit Library. Want more information but not sure where to start? Browse the collection of books & audio books covering pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. Find what you need to have the experience you deserve.

#5) Click here to grab a copy of "Wild Mama": 10 steps to self grace and love when you feel like you've lost your identity. A very powerful quick read for anyone hoping to add more grace, patience, joy, and forgiveness of self during your postpartum healing.