Love Yourself NOW

Have you ever noticed how an insult, no matter how true or untrue, has the power to make you question and reflect on that piece of you in a way that no compliment can? How a few unkind words can stick with you forever, while thousands of kind words are forgotten?

I have had poor self esteem my whole life. Therapy has told me that this comes from childhood. I have lots of seemingly innocent examples of how my parents did a number on me, but never in an intentionally hurtful way. That said, how many times can you ask a person if they need help in some capacity with their physical appearance or give them a backhanded compliment like, "You don't look like a sweathog today", before it starts to take a toll.

Ultimately what I want for myself is to not care how you see my body. I don't want to find my value or worth physically from another person, in any way, ever. I want to feel confident and grateful for the body I have. I want to say kind things to myself, feed myself well, get out in nature, workout, etc, but never ever with the goal of outward acceptance.

Deriving all of your self-esteem from outward sources is dangerous. When those sources move on, or change their opinion, all you will have left is yourself. Your view of self needs to be of love, gratitude and acceptance. Your body has been through a lot and it is here, supporting you everyday. From the moment we open our eyes to the moment we close them, our self-talk about our bodies should be nothing but the same positive words we would say kindly to our loved ones.

I would love to see people move away from things like "fat girl summer". Why can't people just wear what they want to wear?? Perhaps the people judging them can self-reflect and decide why they are judging others in the first place and reframe their thoughts from things like, "Why is she wearing that?" to "Good for her for wearing that!" We all have a variety of insecurities. We should be lifting each other up, or at minimum, minding our own business!

Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. We all go through ages and stages in this life and that is ok! We gain weight, we lose weight, we make babies, and more babies, we have scars and dimples and freckles and whatever else that makes us uniquely us-let's celebrate THAT!

LOVE YOURSELF NOW! No one else's love is more important than how you love yourself!