“Beauty is when you can appreciate yourself. When you love yourself, that’s when you’re most beautiful.”
What does loving yourself mean to you? Is it when you build yourself up and encourage yourself? Being confident in your own skin regardless of your weight?
For a while, loving myself and my body seemed very unnatural. It seemed like something that should be a last thought and should be put on the back burner. In my mind, it was always “love others first & love yourself later” … but the later would never come.
During my eating disorder (ED), I would associate my disordered eating behaviors with loving and comforting myself. It seemed I was doing something good for myself, all while conditioning my mind to hate what I saw every time I looked in the mirror. I learned the hard way that how I was treating my body was not showing it love and ended up hating my body and hating myself.
There is a Bible verse that most people have heard at some point in their lives. Its one of those verses where you read it and think “Yeah, yeah I know that already,” but recently I’ve read it with a new perspective.
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:31
When I used to hear this verse, I would instantly think in terms of loving your neighbor first and loving ourselves second, but that’s not what God wants us to do. He commands us to love our neighbor, but He also expects us to love ourselves. Loving ourselves is supposed to come naturally to us. It should be something that is second nature, not something that is an everyday struggle. So why does it feel so hard at times?
With our society today making it so easy to have a sneak peek into someone else’s life, we get caught up in comparing ourselves to other people. We compare our bodies, our looks and personalities, wealth and social status, and even how many followers we have on Instagram. This was an issue long before the Internet and iPhones, but it seems like social media has only made this problem worse. You are constantly viewing girls that have taken a picture at a perfect angle so it makes them look thin, or someone that seemingly has perfect skin, or someone whose hair looks like it is styled by a professional every day. No wonder its so hard to look in the mirror at everything you are and fully accept what you see when you are constantly trying to match your flaws to other people’s strengths.
This is something I have to remind myself when I’m on social media: Social media is a filtered version of people’s lives. What you see there doesn’t always accurately describe people’s everyday life. Is anyone going to post a picture of themselves lying in bed with no makeup while binge-watching Friends? No!
Long story short…comparing will get you nowhere, easier said than done I know.
I am all about taking care of your body, which is why I feel like the next few words are so important.
What I’ve realized is that if you don’t take the time to love yourself, it will be nearly impossible to take care of your body while treating it in a respectful and healthy way.
In order to love yourself and love your body, you have to fully appreciate and have respect for every part of you. This means realizing that there is really no such thing as the perfect body and that is a good thing. You should love your body because it’s YOUR body. Personally, I had to hit rock bottom before I realized the importance of loving my body and myself. Having to literally start from the ground up on your mental and physical health gives you a new appreciation and respect for yourself. We are all human…we will gain weight, we will lose weight, but your physical appearance shouldn’t be the factor on which you base your worth or how much you should love yourself.
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