Body acceptance…Loving your body…

I’m going to be brutally honest, I don’t think we’ll ever be 100% happy with ourselves or content.

I think it is the human condition to always want more.

BUT I also think we need to find a balance where we appreciate who and what we are flaws and all.

We need to love ourselves despite the struggles and even value ourselves potentially more because of what we’ve gone through.

Struggles do not diminish our value.

Personally I believe those life experiences enhance our worth.

But I thought this was also an interesting way of thinking about value…

If I offered you a crisp and new $20 bill right now, you’d want it.

If I crumpled that, you’d still want.

If I rubbed some dirt on it and stepped on it, you’d still want the $20.

Because the value of that bill hasn’t changed despite the dirt.

Honestly the wear and tear on the bill really doesn’t matter, it’s still $20.

We’ve got to value ourselves in the same way – we need to value ourselves despite painful conditions and failures.

We can’t degrade ourselves just because of temporary setbacks and struggles.

We need to realize all the worth we truly have.

I think when we can see our value and realize it is unchanging despite our current circumstance we can start to better achieve acceptance.

We can work to improve without being unhappy.

So how can you help yourself see your own worth?

#1: Recognize you’ll always want to improve something, but flaws don’t make you less worthy.

No matter what we achieve, we will always find something that can be better. And I think it’s key we realize this instead of feeling like we will be fulfilled, we will be valuable if we achieve something specific.

Because so often we achieve a goal to then not feel satisfied and feel even more broken because we aren’t happy having achieved what we thought would make us feel fulfilled.

So by recognizing that there will always be more we want, we can start to value the journey better.

We can start to appreciate our growth.

I think it can also help us take pressure off of achieving something specific too, ultimately making it easier to reach the goal we wanted in the first place.

To be flawed is truly human. And we will always want more growth.

Life is about the journey. We need to recognize this over putting so much value just in a destination.

Your worth isn’t about a specific outcome. It’s about how you choose to constantly learn and grow and appreciate the ride.

#2: Take time to recognize your value.

So often we deem things we don’t have as valuable over recognizing what we have.

There is that line – you never know who you’re inspiring.

But we need to take time to see what we have! To appreciate how we can inspire others and even share of ourselves to recognize what we have.

I think when we start to consider how we can help others, we can better see our worth.

So what do you have to share? What can you teach? Recognize those things to give yourself credit for all you’ve accomplished!

#3: Remember that your current situation is always temporary.

We are always able to move forward from where we are at. Even if we’ve suffered a setback and may not get back to “where we were,” we can always move forward.

Our situation is only as permanent as we allow it to be.

If you want more, choose to make changes to work toward it.

Any setback or slip up is temporary. It doesn’t impact our worth or our value.

We can always move forward and grow.

For me it’s even defining value in something I can control – aka am I letting myself stay stuck. If I’m choosing to stay stuck then there is the problem.

But my value isn’t lessened from struggle.

If anything it grows.

Diamonds become diamonds because of pressure!

Realize you can let those struggles even increase your worth!

SUMMARY:

Realize that seeing our own value is never easy. Accepting our flaws is hard.

But little setbacks and struggles don’t take away from our worth.

There is also always a way to move forward. But we’ve got to enjoy the journey knowing it will never really be done!