Every single day many women are faced with the challenge of truly loving ourselves. We divert all of our attention into accepting the outward flaws like our uneven skin, or our imperfect waistlines. We take crucial steps, one by one, towards finding love within our physical imperfections so much that we often forget about our mental ones.
Self-love is an eternally weaving path that doesn’t have a finish line. I came to terms with that myself very recently when I thought for a second that I was a few steps short of the end. I looked in the mirror, with the false belief that I was doing just fine on my self-love journey. “I’m pretty enough” was the thought that crossed my mind as I took in my own appearance. I was doing it right, wasn’t I? I was finally beginning to get a hold of this whole “self-love” thing.
But, I wasn’t off the hook that easily. A small voice crept into my thoughts, before I could give myself a pat on the back and well-deserved self-esteem medal. I thought back to the last time I called myself stupid for speaking up in class with the wrong answer. Or the the time that I compared my own short list of career accomplishments with that of my peers, and told myself that I was headed nowhere fast in life. That I wasn’t good enough and completely unqualified to even apply for that internship that I wanted, so there was no point to even bother.
The harsh realization struck a hard chord within me. Just because I happened to like the way that I looked that particular day, didn’t mean that I embodied self love. Our outward aspects are only one fraction of the person we are, and every single part needs the right nourishment to grow. Negative thoughts can easily take hold of us, like weeds, and try to keep us in place so that we never fully reach true acceptance of ourselves. But, it’s up to us to cut them out, no matter which part of us they grow from. Whether that be in our minds or on our bodies.