FEELING MATTERS
Five ways to start loving your belly.
I’m all about selflove. So, when I caught wind of the upcoming Love Your Belly Workshop run by Hailley Wollak and Gina-Marie Vincent Runnels at Big Power Yoga, I perked up.
Learning to love your belly sounds like a great way to practice loving yourself. But when you’ve spent your whole life hating, how do you flip the switch?
I sat down with Wollak and Runnels to talk it through. Our conversation churned up insights and five practical tips.
Here are the highlights.
1. Just notice.
This point is best illustrated with the story of how “Love Your Belly” became a thing.
It all started in January 2017. Like so many other nights, after eating a delicious meal with her good friends, Wollak went home, brushed her teeth and looked in disgust at her full tummy in the mirror. She was going to have to exercise extra hard the next day to make up for her weakness that evening.
But this night, something interesting happened. While starting to plan her punishing workout, Wollak noticed what she was doing and realized that this was not the way she wanted to live.
“I had this moment where I said, ‘No. I am done thinking this way. I am done putting myself down. I don’t want selfcritical thoughts to take myself away from a night that was lovely.’ ”
With that, she marched over to an even bigger mirror, snapped a photo of her bare belly and took to Instagram. Her best friend, Gina-Marie Vincent Runnels (also there that night), saw the post and immediately posted a pic, too.
The #loveyourbellymovement was born.
“You don’t just wake up one day and those thoughts are gone. It’s a practice,” they say.
Catching negative thoughts is where that practice starts. Just like Wollak, notice when you criticize yourself and how it makes you feel. You don’t even need to change your thinking. Just become more aware of what you’re saying to yourself. That’s Step 1.
2. What do you love?
We’re all super clear about the parts of our bodies and personalities that we don’t like. We tend to blow those things up in our minds and completely lose sight of the millions of other things that are awesome and beautiful.
Runnels and Wollak suggest regularly noting three to five things we love about ourselves.
You might do this when you notice negative thoughts. That’s a good time simply because it’s when you may remember, but anytime works.
“I’m loving my hair
today,” Runnels says. “It’s looking beautiful in this weather. I’m also loving my personality. I’m just a great time! I enjoy being with myself. I love my belly, my core. It’s soft and strong. It’s been supporting my back, which I recently hurt.”
It can feel weird and unfamiliar to name things you like about yourself — almost like it’s not OK to be so explicitly complimentary. But listening to these women share some of their positive attributes was uplifting and inspiring. It felt good to hear. It’s a powerful step toward loving
your belly, too.
3. Find community.
Extending on tip No. 2, being around people who are working on similar stuff is huge. It rubs off.
When Runnels or Wollak inevitably slip back into self-doubt, the other is there. They inspire, support and encourage accountability in one another.
Find people you can engage in these ideas with. It even exists on social media if you look in the right place. #Loveyourbellymovement has attracted hundreds of posts on Instagram
over the past few years.
Of course, attending the Love Your Belly Movement Workshop is also a great way to find likeminded folks. Details are below.
4. Choose balance and feeling good.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one
wild and precious life?” — Mary Oliver, American poet
Wollak thinks of this quote often. It’s a reminder that we get to choose how we want to live. So often we unconsciously choose to sweat the small stuff and punish ourselves.
Alternatively, we could choose balance and feeling good.
Enjoy a big dinner out with friends. And exercise. Order the delicious biscotti and a latte when your morning interview is at Blonde Biscotti in Montrose (true story). And choose a more nutritious lunch or a green smoothie for breakfast tomorrow.
But, unlike what Wollak caught herself doing on that fateful January night, make these choices because they feel good. Because savoring yummy food is one way that you choose to spend this wild and precious life. Because exercise, green smoothies and balance overall also feel good.
Take punishment out of the equation. Same goes with losing weight.
“If someone wants to lose weight — sure!” Runnels says. “We just want women to feel empowered to make a choice for what works for themselves.”
The natural extension of that choice to feel good is to love your belly.
5. Yoga can help.
Wollak, Runnels and I are all yoga teachers. They teach at Big Power Yoga; I teach at Yogaworks.
There are tons of different styles of yoga and many options in Houston. Runnels and Wollak suggest trying out different teachers and different studios to find a style you like.
“Yoga was the thing that had me fall deeply in love with my body,” Wollak says. “It shifted me from, ‘What does it look like?’ to, ‘How does it feel on the inside?’ ”
Both women are undeniably in good shape. They say others sometimes question their credibility when it comes to loving their bellies.
“It’s not about what you look like or what size you are. It’s about how you view yourself,” says Wollak, “too fat, too thin, too strong. It’s always something.”
“Just because someone is fit or thin doesn’t mean they don’t have thoughts that are unhealthy or unkind,” Runnels adds.
Looks aside, loving your belly is ultimately about loving your life. That’s for everyone.