I bet you’ve already answered the question ‘my worst feature is’ without even realising it.
Growing up it was normal to find something you disliked about yourself. We are fed this at a young age to critique our bodies, to critique are so called flaws, have #bodyshame and be unhappy with who we are and who we have become. If we don’t have something we don’t like about ourselves, we are made to feel ashamed, self-obsessed or ‘in love with ourselves’. We are made to feel like we are outsiders or self-absorbed.
But why is this? Why should girls feel ashamed for loving themselves or believing there is nothing to fix about themselves? Why can we not feel #empowered, be proud of who we are and who we have become? #selflove is the most important lesson I have learnt throughout my journey. Without this nothing in your life will flow. You will find you are always at war with yourself. That there is nothing right about yourself. You start to develop this hate towards yourself in order to fit in with society and not be the odd one out who loves themselves. You start to critique yourself in order to be accepted. Your #bodyconfidence starts to diminish. Have you ever seen Mean girls? Where they are in the mirror and Caddy struggled to find anything, she did not like about herself? Instantly the plastics were eyeing her off as if she was not normal?
But why is this? Why can we not be in #love with ourselves? There is a difference with being self-absorbed and honouring yourself with self-love. Self-love is a practice. Self-love is something we need to do in order to be at peace within ourselves and allow #life to flow. We shouldn’t be fixated on ‘my worst feature is…?’. If we do not accept who we are the growing hate will start to evolve and before you know it, you will be at war with yourself. You will find it hard to accept where you are and who you have become. You will continue to strive for change in order to fill this unfulfilled happiness that lays inside that has been learnt throughout your life. Why would we want this for others? Why would we want this for our friends? For our daughters? For society? We must start to honour ourselves. Know you do not have to be the same kind of perfect as someone else. Have #bodyacceptance. We are all unique. We are all individual. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. We are all different, but that’s the beauty of life. That’s the beauty of connection. As all our differences unite and we connect with others and that is the truth to happiness. Without connection, without acceptance and without self-love you will never truly find yourself satisfied with life and you will continue to search for the impossible.
Start by acknowledging where you are at, how far you have come and where you are headed to. Start by honouring yourself and showing self-love. Stop picking on yourself. Stop judging yourself. Stop being so critical towards yourself. This will not get you anywhere. If you can help yourself, you will be able to help others along their journey’s and start shaping a promising future for the next generation who comes and making the change that is in need to happen. Don’t allow these girls to learn the insecurities you had. To go on the battle so many of us are going through. Stop highlighting your worst feature and feeding energy to these negative thoughts. Let them wash away. Do not allow them to dictate your life. Show up and promote self-love. Talk to yourself like you would talk to another female. Show love. And trust me you will start to feel the difference within. Focus on the parts you love about yourself and feed that energy. My best feature is….
Love from the Italian who loves to speak,
Lauren xo