The Self Love Series - Tip #1
Hello beautiful people,
Self love is something I feel so passionate about! We're conditioned by society today to hate ourselves, and why? To create profit - think about how many companies would go bankrupt if every single woman in the world just loved themselves wholly and completely.. The weight loss industry, cosmetic surgery industry, beauty industry would take a serious hit! I believe that loving yourself is an act of rebellion in today's society.
I've been there, I've hated things about myself for most of my life and not even just things about my physical appearance either, things about my personality as well. I've hated my stomach, my breasts, my butt, my laugh, my tendency to overeat, my clingyness, my fear. You name it, I've probably hated it and I've probably told multiple people I hated it.
One of my favourite sayings is "how can you expect anyone else to love you when you don't love yourself?" and it's true. That's why I've worked really hard to change that. I still struggle, some days it's easier to love myself than others. But on the days when it's tricky, I'm kind to myself.
That's why I started this journey. To document the things I've learnt on my journey and pass them onto you. I want every woman in the world to love themselves, even if it's just a little bit more. So that we can raise the next generation of women to love themselves too.
So, without further ado...
Welcome to my Self Love Series! Over the next 5 weeks, every Monday I'll be hitting you with a tip to level up your self love game. Are you ready?!
Tip #1
For the next 7 days, I invite you to journal, to write down 3 things you love about yourself every day.
It can be physical attributes or personality traits; to start with one with probably be easier than the other - believe me, but that's okay.
For me, it was a lot easier to start with personality traits I loved about myself, my appearance was too difficult to contemplate. I was still in an incredibly dark place.
It's so important that we find things that we love, or even just like about ourselves. It builds our self esteem and confidence.
When you don't like yourself, you become dependent on other people for validation - in other words, you rely on people to tell you how pretty, funny or clever you are. We all like to hear it from other people sometimes, but if those people disappeared then so would any sense of confidence you had. It needs to come from inside you because you are the only person that is going to be in your life forever. If you like yourself, you're more likely to take chances, because you know that failure is not a direct reflection on you as a person - you're more likely to enjoy life!
There is no one else like you in the whole wide world, you're unique, one of a kind and I think that's super special.
I remember the first time I read "Self Care for the Real World" by Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips, one of first activities is to do exactly this and I cried because I couldn't even think of one thing.
It was a real wake up call for me. Now it's something that comes easier and there are things that roll off the tongue.
To get you started, here are mine for today...
I love my hair! I take really good care of it, and because of that it's in gorgeous condition. When I was young I was teased terribly because of the colour, but I love colour! I've never ever dyed it; I knew that if I did, I would never get this colour back.
I'm a kind person. I like to think I would do anything I could in my power to help other people.
My nose. I have the same nose as my mother, sister and grandmothers. It links me to my family, a family of strong women and I'm reminded of this whenever I look at photos of us together.
I would love to know what 3 things you LOVE about yourself?
Let me know below and be sure to join the community on Instagram at @selflovewith_sian to follow along!
Don't forget to check back in next week for tip #2!