I have seen a couple of posts recently by women who were mentioning how they didn’t like certain parts of their bodies and how they felt uncomfortable with themselves. It broke my heart. I am a firm believer in helping people to understand that they need to love themselves. All of themselves, including the imperfections. I know LOTS of men and women would appreciate being able to change things about themselves. None of us are perfect and even the images we see of people (who appear perfect), aren’t. Rachel Hollis had a great quote at one of her Rise Conferences, pointing to herself she said “there is a whole team behind this!” That is true … for us normal people, there is no team to do our hair, put on make up, pick out our clothes or do our nails. That is not real or normal. So don’t waste your time comparing yourself to those people.
If you happen to be a parent, how you view yourself is even more important. Your children are watching you. They are watching ever single thing you say, gesture your make and they are wanting to be just like you. If you are complaining about how you don’t like your thighs, refuse to wear a swimsuit because you feel fat, or are always on a diet to try to lose 5-10lbs, they will pick up on that. Another RDN that I follow on social media is always encouraging moms to demonstrate self-love and acceptance for their daughters. This is SO important. I had a mother who wasn’t perfect, but loved herself and that helped me to develop a positive self image of my own. Demonstrating to our children to how to love ourself matters. This RDN shared that her daughter went swim suit shopping with her and they were trying on suits in the Target changing room and her daughter smiled and told her “that swim suit made her look beautiful!” That little girl loves her mom so much that she wasn’t noticing extra skin, stretch marks or some cellulite. She saw our beautiful her mom was and she told her that. That made my heart smile! That is what we need more of, loving ourselves like our family loves us, despite the imperfections.
If you aren’t a parent, this still pertains to you. Loving yourself and every part of you has an impact on your outlook on life. People who are happier live longer. Our lives are short and so let’s make those moments we have happy. I am not saying that we abandon on self control and gorge ourselves on donuts, but we embrace that we aren’t perfect, do the best we can and love ourselves through those struggles and short comings.
So please, avoid any negative self talk about yourself. Don’t call yourself fat. Don’t look in the mirror and put yourself down. If that is a struggle for you, keep your mirror in a place where you aren’t always passing it. Avoid that negative self talk and instead focus on giving yourself a compliment. Practice this on your family and friends - compliment others on how they look today, thank someone for their help, be kind to others and then practice that same positivity on yourself.
We all face enough challenges and things that stress us out in the world. We don’t need to be our own worst enemy and put extra negative pressure on ourselves. So find a way to love yourself this week and give yourself some positive, self talk, because you are amazing and wonderful, just the way you are!