Choosing to love yourself

Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of posts where people have been ‘feeling’ their hair, i.e. they’ve simply been loving their hair. Well, the day I took these photos it wasn’t quite as much about feeling my hair as it was about feeling myself, in the sense that I was feeling confident and pretty much happy to be in the skin that I’m in.

From time to time, we all have moments of self doubt: Am I pretty enough? Do I fit in? Am I cool/hip/trendy enough? Am I meeting society’s expectations? Am I making my friends and family happy? Am I making enough money? Am I in the right job, city or country? I could go on forever. Well you know what I say to that?

Let it go and keep it moving…

Let me give you an example: I’ve picked up a bit of weight since I got married 6 weeks ago. Not too much, about 3kg, so not enough for others to notice but enough for me to notice the change in my body. But you know what, for probably the first time in my life I’m not beating myself up over it. I’m just seeing it for what it is: it’s Winter and it’s bloody cold. So yes, I am snacking and eating lots more comfort food and I think in a way my body might be better off for it for another month or so. But I also know that I’m not interested in being unhealthy or overweight so it won’t be a problem for me to go back to my pre-wedding eating habits.

So what I’m saying is that we should try not to be so hard on ourselves. Because you know what happens? We end up putting unrealistic expectations on ourselves which result in feelings such as frustration, anger, guilt, depression and the like. It affects our confidence, our self-esteem and ultimately our happiness. And don’t we all deserve to be happy? I know it’s easier said than done, but sometimes you just have to tell yourself to deal with it, put on your big girl panties and decide to be happy.

Remember, there’s no such thing as being perfect. Chances are you’ll always have a curl that won’t play along, an argument with a loved one, or miss a deadline. Whatever the case is, try your best to resolve the issue and to move on, even if resolving it will take some time. It helps to have a goal that you’re working towards so while you’re dealing with the mundane you can focus on the prize ahead. Do more of makes you feel good and happy: Eat more ice-cream, give more of yourself to others, travel, dance, exercise, whatever works for you. Right now I love working on this blog and connecting with those who enjoy this site. It’s part of my daily routine which brings me immense joy and like I said, I’m fairly certain happiness is something we all want.

I’m reminded of two of my favourite quotes about happiness.

“If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely” – Roald Dahl

“Happy girls are the prettiest” – Audrey Hepburn