Self-Love Edition

5 Questions with Ine Willis

1. Could you explain to us a little about the “positive body” movement? What is it and why is it important?

I think it is so important to look at your body with compassion. You do not necessarily have to like it, nor be comfortable with it, but you do need to be at peace. It is a sense that your body is not an ornament, but an instrument, a vehicle; It is the container of who you are. You are not your body, but you have a form, and it is completely valid as it is today, here and now.

From very young we are programmed to believe that our body is bad, that it has something missing, that it has too much of this or not enough of that.

Personally I think it is a strategy of subordination of women and also a way to sell us what we do not need.

We can always be better, but we do not need to change to be loved, to belong; with peace and acceptance comes the seed of transformation.

To live with a “positive body” outlook is, simply, not to live in enmity with what you see in the mirror. It is unconditional acceptance towards something that is.

2. At what point in your life did you start working on this topic for women? Do you think it only impacts them?

I started first in me. Tired of looking in the mirror and always finding something to reject, or to change the way I present myself to the world, and that with that attitude I was conditioning my own self worth.

I do not like living with unnecessary limits, with impediments on how to love others and to love myself. I don’t like to feel like a slave to what others want me to be, and I hate the need for my image to be about some ideal of beauty in turn. I just got tired of it and I started to study and investigate because I knew there had to be a better way to love and accept ourselves. I found a way and I wanted to share my experience.

It impacts women more I think, because they educate us to be “perfect” and men to be “brave”. Women have to look a certain way, smile a certain way, and behave in a certain way that aims at an ideal of perfection; which is nonexistent, impossible, that leaves us always feeling empty and unsatisfied.

In my opinion, gender equity is something that could help with the rejection of our body; Teach our girls to be brave too and not perfect.

3. Could you give us some advice on how we can improve our relationship with the mirror?

A simple act that can help us greatly improve our relationship with ourselves in the mirror is to do a detox of our social networks. Make our virtual space a safe place for us.

What we see in social networks is content that is often body-centred, on the image as our only value, it always leads us to a place of comparison and dissatisfaction: so unfollow.

Stop following people who just make you feel bad about yourself. Follow people of different types, accounts about love and acceptance of the body, which ideally also vary in ages, skin color, disabled people, etc. Follow all the people who have great content but never show themselves; because they are proof that you can live a full, vibrant, happy, glamorous life, far beyond appearance.

What we see every day teaches us how to see ourselves. Therefore the more variety of bodies we expose ourselves to and recognize as beautiful and wonderful the easier it is to accept our own bodies in the same light.

4. What do you do for yourself, within the category of “self-love”?

For me, self-love is synonymous with self-care. It is as easy as asking ourselves before we take any action towards ourselves to ask: “What would love do?” And of course we are not always standing in a place of love, which is very natural and it is part of growing up, making mistakes and evolving, we need to meet and recognize each other in different states; But it seems a good question to always help us return to the path of love.

How do I express my lack of self-love? Punishing myself for my mistakes? Filling myself with junk food to satisfy some emptiness within? Each one of us knows what are their systems of self-sabotage, lack of love; and that is the point to detect. Put a stop at that moment and say: hey! breathe, you deserve love. Yes, even with everything as it is and with the “errors”, the “defects” and the “failures”; You deserve the best, you deserve your love and that of others!

5. Why should we have a self-love practice?

The moment we begin to live in a place of love with ourselves, of respect, conscience, and of peace; we open up a channel of internal communication to a source that gives us what we need so we are not demanding it from “life” or “others.”

We recover our infinite power, because when we give ourselves love, we are love.

Imagine how many things can be created from that place!

Also, with this attitude, we give people a guideline of how we want to be treated and loved. At the end of the day we accept the love we believe we deserve.

In short, nothing and nobody will fill that void for self-love more than yourself; not your parents, nor tons of clothes and makeup. Self-love does not come in the form of a prince saviour who is going to tell you how beautiful you are every day, because believe me, nothing will ever be enough if you do not give it to yourself first.

Brownie Tower With Vegan Ganache, Gluten-Free

Ingredients for the Ganache

• 1 cup of cashews (soaked for 2 hours minimum)

• 1/4 cup of coconut oil

• 1/4 cup of almond milk

• 2 tbsp vanilla extract

• 4 tsp of organic cocoa powder

• 4 tsp of agave or organic rice honey

Preparation of Ganache:

Combine all ingredients in the food processor until you get a creamy composition.

Ingredients for the cake

• 1 cup of gluten-free oatmeal

• 1/2 cup of walnut flour

• 1/2 cup of amaranth flour

• 4 tbsp. of organic cocoa powder

• 1/4 cup of coconut sugar

• 1 tsp of aluminum free baking powder

• 2 ripe bananas pureed with a fork

• 1/4 organic coconut oil

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

If you do not have the flours, like me, you can grind oats, walnuts and amaranth in the blender. When you have the flour ready add all the dry ingredients of the recipe and mix it with a spatula, add the banana and vanilla, until you achieve a homogeneous mixture.

Grease a rectangular mold with coconut oil. Bake the mixture at 175ºC for 25 minutes or you can do the “stick” test.

You can cut the cake in 3 parts and make a tower, decorate with the ganache, enjoy this vegan and gluten-free cake, to show your love to all your loved ones.

Puedes cortar la tarta en 3 partes y hacer una torre, decorando con el ganache. Disfruta este pastel vegano y libre de gluten, para demostrar tu amor a todos tus seres queridos.

ROSS HERNÁNDEZ

Coach certificado en Cambio de Hábitos y en Trofología. Chef basado en plantas por el INAT. Actualmente estudio dos certificaciones en el Institute for Integrative Nutrition (Health Coach) y Experto en Detox por “Sana tu Vida Coaching”. Fundadora y Directora de Home Green Home, Boutique Orgánica y Restaurante