In an entire sitting on a flight to New York I read Ashley Grahams new book: A New Model. for any woman who has ever struggled with body image - I highly recommend this book. It's an extremely empowering novel that celebrates body diversity, body positivity, and the power of the female form. But the part that really resonated with me was with how much I celebrate the beauty of other women, as much as I'm the first person to call out the great qualities of people around me - I am deserving of that kind of love too.
It's really important to me to celebrate the uniqueness of human beings. I am that person in public who will tell strangers I love their outfit, their hair looks incredible, or they have a contagious smile. I think if we all spent a little more time complimenting and lifting each other up, the world would be just a little bit softer. But when it comes to myself, I'm kind of an asshole.
There is no negative thing anyone could say to me that I have not thought about myself. I'm the first person to point out my flaws and I am constantly thinking about how to improve who I am. And while it's important to always be growing, it's equally important to appreciate who you are NOW.
I recently started getting back into therapy and it's hit me like a ton of bricks that as much as I do love who I am - I am still really mean to myself. I criticize where I'm at in my career, how hard I'm working out, nit pick at my appearance, worry about how committed I am to the people around me - etc. etc. etc. And that is really exhausting. And really unnecessary.
So I'm working on looking at how kindly I treat others and figuring out how to be as kind to myself. I'm an exceptional human being, in theory - I get that overall - I'm good people. But learning to celebrate that every day and give myself the compliments that I give others, is absolutely necessary. I'm out here doing my best too and my best is pretty dang good - I deserve love and celebration and compliments too.
There's a difference in self love and celebrating the self. I truly do love who I am. But being able to celebrate that love and confidence is critical to a healthy mentality. So here's how I solve, because we all know I love a good list:
- Everyday I write down something I love about me
- T-H-E-R-A-P-Y
- Learning to call myself and hold myself accountable when I get too judgmental of myself
- Surrounding myself with people who are positive about themselves
- Chill the F out
That's where we are. Baby steps and small celebrations. Hold me accountable and help me make this happen my sequins. I'm kind of awesome, and I need to stop being such a jerk to myself because I certainly would never put up with anyone else treating me the way I treat me sometimes!
#SparkleOn