7 Tips for Knowing Your Body Better (and Loving Yourself)
Getting to know your body and taking care of yourself goes beyond knowing your body type, determining your body mass index (BMI), and getting a good night’s sleep. It’s not just performing health checks for folks with vaginas and health checks for people with penises. It’s not just figuring out how to boost your libido. While all these things can play into exploring yourself and knowing your body better, they’re not the be-all-and-end-all.
To help you truly get to know your body, we’ve outlined seven fantastic ways to get you on the path to exploring yourself and learning about you more fully.
Journal to keep track of your feelings
There are so many benefits to journaling that anyone can capitalize on, regardless of their situation. Journaling is an ideal way to lay down your emotions, struggles, and uncertainties on paper to (potentially) help you work through them at the moment or, with time, to sort through your perspective on them. It’s also an excellent way to track your opinions and life lessons as you progress through the years!
Go to therapy to help work through stressors
If you’re wondering why everyone should go to therapy, in our opinion, it’s because of the wonders it can do for the mind. Even when we don’t necessarily feel uncertain or mentally ‘down,’ a psychotherapist can help us work through dilemmas we may not even be aware of, in our subconscious, that are holding us back from being our best selves.
When it comes to healthy relationships, couples therapy can help folks more deeply explore the entanglement of mental health and love.
Meditate to get in touch with your emotions
The practice of mindfulness can help you get on track in a given moment and develop awareness within you to focus your attention, thoughts, and feelings as needed in future circumstances. In addition to regulating your emotions (including lowering anxiety and easing depression), it translates into a greater sense of improved physical health. After all, our mental health can significantly affect the way we feel physically!
Masturbate to explore erogenous zones
First of all, masturbation is good for you both physically and mentally. That said, knowing your body by exploring yourself helps you to gain a deeper understanding of how and where you like to be touched. Whether with your hand or a toy (there are plenty of amazing sex toys for vaginas and sex toys for penises to help with this), it will make you more aware of what you need sexually. Thus, talking about sex with your partner — including what you like during oral sex — becomes significantly easier.
Stretch to loosen tension at the start of your day
Set a positive tone for the day by stretching your body just after waking up — it doesn’t matter your body type! From head to toe, several minutes of stretching can help loosen any tension in your muscles and get the blood flowing with greater ease. Of course, should you feel the desire to stretch a bit throughout the day, we highly recommend doing so.
Exercise to get your blood flowing
Exercise is a fantastic way to improve your muscle strength and endurance, distribute oxygen and nutrients through your bloodstream around your entire body, and elevate heart and lung health. It can also boost your mental health and emotional wellbeing.
While there are plenty of exercises available, one of the health benefits of sex we love is that it’s often a more fun physical activity than other methods.
Intuitively eat to recognize your nourishment needs
Intuitive eating is listening to what your body has to say when it comes to food. If you’re hungry, have something to eat. If you’re not hungry, don’t eat for the sake of boredom. By developing a healthier relationship with yourself in this way, through what is essentially a self-love exercise, you’re more likely to love your body. Talk about the epitome of self-care!
As you begin taking care of yourself, knowing your body, and exploring yourself more thoroughly, you’ll realize that feeling confident and comfortable enough to truly love yourself goes beyond the fundamental aspects we’ve been taught to pay attention to. This ultimate acceptance and flourishing come from recognizing the signs our bodies are giving us and acting on them in a way that we, as individuals, require.
The only way to achieve this deeper connection to ourselves and, as a result, a more in-depth understanding of what our bodies are asking of us, it to listen to it.
What are your favourite ways to get to know your body? Are there certain things that are a must for taking care of yourself? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
