Day 7 – Women For One

Appreciate YOU! | Day 7

How often do you stop to let yourself know how much you love YOU?

Being your own cheerleader ain’t easy. For starters, most of us who grew up with a critical guardian have chosen self-deprecation over self-love. Our desire for perfection is one of the deepest wounds we carry. Usually, the need to get it right—to have the “perfect” body, career, partner, or life—comes from shame that we’ve experienced in the past. We all carry scars from past trauma, and we all deal with them in our own ways. So let’s dig a little deeper and acknowledge how our shame causes us to conceal our deepest beauty and strength, and how it keeps us from accessing our joy.

Now, I totally get that self-love mantras and affirmations that have picked up so much steam in the New Age world can feel so canned and disingenuous. But offering yourself appreciation and love isn’t about glossing over the bad shit and pretending that everything is peachy. It’s about taking a deeper look at what worked and what didn’t, and then being your own best friend, regardless of the circumstances—offering encouragement and recognition of how awesome you actually are.

Activity

Make a short list of your perceived imperfections and flaws. What are the things you don’t typically like about yourself? Try and open up to the notion that the lenses through which you look at yourself are as accurate as a funhouse mirror. If that’s the case, can you simply put them down for a moment and get real with what you actually see? Can you look at your body, your house, your career, your life, with deep love? Now, for each of the flaws you wrote, create a statement of appreciation. For example, if you decided that your thighs are too big, your statement might be, “I love my strong and juicy thighs.” Choose one appreciative statement from your list as your mantra for the day. Now, get out there and flaunt it! Wherever you are in your emotional and physical life (premenstrual and cranky, or clear and inspired), take some time to let YOU know that you see, love, and care about that gorgeous being staring back at you in the mirror.

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2 comments to "Day 7"

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Julie Templin

October 3, 2017 AT 4:09PM

I just read the book Untethered Soul and in the first chapter it talked about our critical inner voice. The advice was to think of our inner voice as a roommate. We would never ever choose our inner voice as our roommate because she is way too critical and harsh and makes us feel bad about ourselves. I resonated with the suggestion to dismiss her as she is not really me. She gets her ideas from the world, not my heart.

Instead I am dreaming up the perfect roommate. One who will be spontaneous and fun, enjoy the heck out of life and not be worried at all about the perfectionism of the past as it is a lie. I want someone who will love me and encourage me and tell me I am doing a great job trying my best. I love this idea of listening to her more… she’s more like me. I have the power to choose a new roommate anytime I like. So refreshing and necessary!!
- Women For One
  
  April 11, 2018 AT 12:36PM
  
  Awesome! Please also be sure to approach the exercise in such a way that you aren’t making your inner roommate “wrong” but are truly finding the gift in the middle of what feels like a lot of muck. I promise you, it’s there!