I spent decades criticizing my body. I looked at other girls, and told myself I was too fat. Society told me I was too fat. Boys on the school bus told me I was too fat. I looked in the mirror and agonized that my skin was always breaking out. I scrubbed my face with abrasive cleaner at least twice every day. I was sure that if I was beautiful life would be easier. And beautiful was being thin with clear skin.
I did not even notice that my body was strong. It could climb mountains. It could organize a task list like nobody’s business. I did not notice that my eyes were big and bright, even though I once put on green contacts and multiple gay men stopped me on the streets of San Francisco to tell me that my eyes were beautiful. I did not notice my curly shiny hair, or how rare my dazzling exuberance really is in this world.
There are a lot of insecure people in this world. They are insecure about themselves, and they don’t want you to feel good about yourself either. If marketing experts can convince you that you are not perfect, then they could convince you that you need whatever new thing they are selling. It is to their advantage to keep you hating your body. Only you benefit from loving your body, so you can’t look to others for this love.
A society of women focusing on how they look keeps them small. Instead of fighting the dismal lack of support for families, or for equal pay, or any of the other injustices in the world, women spend their time worrying about how many pounds they currently weigh. A ridiculous amount of mental energy is expended on what they have eaten or not eaten instead of anything that matters. As if what you have eaten determines if you are worthy of love.
The first step towards self-love is to stop criticizing yourself! Creative life and light shine within you. You are made of star-dust. It is a true miracle that you are alive! This is so miraculous that the size of your nose or your belly can’t even be considered.
Take a moment to look at yourself in the mirror. Look at your legs that hold you up and take you to different places, your arms that allow you to hug your loved ones, your sparkly eyes that let you see the world.
Instead of focusing on what parts of your body you don’t like, and what things you could do better, it is time to focus on what you can do. What you do like about yourself. The way your body works. What areas in your life you have ease with. Have you truly acknowledged your magnificence?
Your challenge is to find 10 things you love about yourself each day for week
We can get so caught up in what we don’t like about ourselves, we forget to remember what is good. Focusing on what we love about ourselves actually rewires our brain and mindset. And while it is probably easy enough to come up with 10 things (I hope!), stretching to come up with 70 will push you to grow. Remember that change happens when you do something you haven’t done before. Just like strengthening your muscles when you lift a heavy weight, you are strengthening your self-love mindset by pushing beyond the comfort zone. When you are thinking about what you love, make sure to focus on characteristics that make you spectacular, rather than physical attributes. I can’t wait to hear about what this does to your mindset!
70 things I love and appreciate about Juniper
- Varied interests with enthusiasm for all of them
- Truly engaged on a deep level
- Blessed to be spiritually awakened
- Always seeking and growing
- Flexible and strong
- Has a decent job that pays for what she needs
- Blessed with enough money for food and home and occasional treats, and satisfied with what she has
- Competent at anything she puts her mind to
- Able to create amazing friendships
- She is capable of great love
- Immense joy for life
- Her happiness with small things: sunshine, coffee, petting cats, good food, etc
- Her delight in talking and connecting with others
- Her ability to run and do yoga
- Her delight in all things sparkly
- The fact that some pieces of her never grew up
- The fact that her sense of responsibility did grow up
- Her ability to still find so many things she wants to learn
- Her ability to make food turn into manna
- Her intuition
- Her extrasensory perception
- Her enthusiasm
- Her physical strength
- Her ability to manifest
- Her colorful home full of books and cats
- Her ability to make any place cozy and delicious
- Her easy laughter
- Her brilliant mind
- Her shapely curves
- Her big sparkly eyes with life shining out
- Her luscious lips
- Her exuberant hair
- Her ageless skin
- Her genetics of health
- Her strong teeth without cavities
- Her iron stomach able to digest anything without upset
- Her mesomorphic body that builds muscle quickly
- Her love of big jewelry
- Her spring fever need to garden
- Her ability to simplify
- How much she knows about health
- How much she knows about spirituality
- How much more she can learn
- How much enjoyment she gets from coffee and beautiful clothes
- Her friends
- Her thoughtful sweet kids
- Her hour in the morning to journal, meditate, and focus on self
- Her soft skin
- Her strong legs
- Her smell – sweaty or perfumed
- Her relentless optimism on love
- Her open-mindedness
- Her caring for others
- Her strong sense of self
- Her ethics
- Her love of nature
- Her love of reading
- Her strong sense of intuition and watching it get stronger
- Her independence
- Her passion
- Her curiosity
- Her engagement
- Her enthusiasm
- Her ability to write
- Her ability to teach complicated subjects in a relatable way
- Her enthusiastic dancing
- Her love of feeding people
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