Beautiful You (Begin)

I purchased this book called “Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance” a while ago, and have decided to finally sit down and begin.

Today’s journal questions: What are your hopes – personally and for the world – with regard to body image and self-acceptance?  How can you begin to live your hopes today?

I think in general my hope, personally, is simply to begin to appreciate the good things about myself.  I think there are times when I am feeling confident and proud of who I am, but then there are also times when I can’t stop thinking about the things that I am lacking.  I would very much like to stop comparing myself to others (comparison is the thief of joy, after all) because everyone’s journeys are different.  Though I understand that on a fundamental level, I sometimes have difficulty separating myself from feeling envious of others who have what I think I want.  I am quick to judge based on little information and I often find myself assuming that others “have it easy” when they may not.

As far as body image goes, that’s a much more complex challenge for me.  For me, part of self-acceptance is learning to accept that I am worthy and lovable EVEN WITH the body I have currently, which in my mind is not all that….nice. Haha.   I tend to give a causal relationship to weight and worth:  the more I weigh, the less I’m worth and the more invisible I become, both to myself and others.  Though I think that there is a strong correlation between weight and FEELINGS of worth, I don’t believe that being overweight has to CAUSE feelings of poor self-worth.  I also believe that if I were able to learn to accept my body as it is and love it for all the incredible things it’s allowed me to do, I’d be more motivated to treat it right and handle it with care.

My hopes for the world when it comes to body image and self-acceptance are far simpler.  I subscribe to a “live and let live” philosophy, and I think that if more people did the same, we’d be a lot better off.  I don’t care what you’re doing with your life as long as it makes you happy and doesn’t harm others in the process.

How can I start living my hopes today?  That’s a simple answer, though putting it into action is not quite as simple.  I think one thing I can do is to start focusing on something good about myself every day and tell myself over and over what it is and why it makes me special and unique.  One other thing I can do is to start focusing more on good nutrition and getting some movement in every day.