I share many personal stories to illustrate what my journey to make peace with my own body looked like so that women can find the echoes in their own experiences. One popular story I share details how I tapped into a well of self-compassion after getting stuck on a high-ropes course, dangling in the harness, waiting endless minutes for the teenage guide to show up and help me. It's a poignant story with room for laughter and tenderness.

I spent most of my life hating my body. I thought that was just how things were supposed to be. Every woman that I knew, even the celebrities I followed, seemed to be endlessly fixing their perceived flaws. There was always a new diet, a new skin regimen or procedure, a new exercise that would finally make their bodies perfect.

As I grew, I joined the ranks of women shaming their bodies, never realizing that I didn’t have to. I believed body hatred was part of my legacy as a woman.

Finally, after a series of events shook me awake, I realized all the nasty things I said to my body and how badly I treated her, her being my body. When I became aware of how much I disrespected myself and my body and how disconnected we were, I was horrified. I made it my mission to create a relationship with her. I also have two daughters, and I didn’t want them to ever feel this way about their own bodies.

I began a journaling practice to write a daily love to different body parts because it’s awfully hard to hate something you’re sweet-talking. Not long after I began journaling, I discovered Wild Soul Movement, a gentle movement and mediation practice, and I fell in love with it as another way to connect to my body and to gently care for her. It created space for me to unlearn all the hurtful lessons I’d been taught about how my body “should” look or move, and to celebrate my body just as she is. Wild Soul Movement combined with journaling love notes to my body served as rocket fuel for my healing and liberation.

As I made peace with my body, I stepped into my personal power and began to transform every aspect of my life, from my career to my most intimate relationships, from my beliefs about money to my spiritual practices, from my parenting to my friendships.

One morning while journaling I heard a loud whisper that said, “This isn’t just for you.” Those love notes turned into three sister books that share how I learned to love and accept my body, from my crow’s-feet to my pinky toes.

After publishing Love Notes to My Body, and its two companion books, I began to connect with other women who wanted a different relationship with their bodies too. I created the framework “Awaken. Heal. Live.” to guide women on their body acceptance journeys so that they can transform their lives.

Every woman who heals her relationship with her body becomes a walking, breathing, living permission slip for all women to do the same.