I’ve had a few big thunderbolt moments during my life, and they came the same way a storm comes. We don’t go from a blue sky to a lightning strike in a moment. It takes the converging of various elements. So it is with our lives as well.
I truly believe that our essence, our core, is love. We may all have different names for that love, but to me it’s all the same. And the more we are aware of it, the more joyful, loving, happy, and grateful we will become. But our humanity is the vehicle that allows this love to be sent into the world. So if we aren’t trying to love that too, how will we ever be able to fully unleash the power of all this love within us?
Now, I didn’t just decide one day that I now loved my humanity. I had to work on it. I still do. And, in one way, I was forced to work on it. All because we moved into a house with a really big bathroom mirror. Really. Big.
This monstrosity was across from the shower. So every day, I stepped out of the shower and there I was, in all my glory. I, like many women, have had a lifetime of poor body image. I constantly beat myself up. One day, I just stopped. I couldn’t take the hate any more. And from that day forward, I looked at my body with love. No more negativity allowed. I thanked it. I blessed it. And the journey to love my body led to a journey to love myself. I started to talk out loud. I’d look in that big mirror, and say “Michelle, you are beautiful, inside and out.” And the next day, I’d say it again. And the day after that. And the day after that. Some days I told myself that I rocked. Some days I told myself how good a person I am. I told myself ‘I love you’. I did it long enough, that I started to believe it. And I believe it still.
So now, I love myself on the days when I’m rocking it, as well as on the days when I’m not. I love my jiggly bits and my good bits. My crabby bits, and my funny bits. And the best part of this lovefest was that as I loved myself more, I loved others more too. I became more accepting of others. Less critical.
This loving and accepting of me led to the loving and accepting of you. Isn’t that great? And really, isn’t that what it’s all about?
BreatheShellyGirl 