This weekend I co-hosted one of the best #girlgains event yet, in collaboration with Protein Pow, Holland and Barrett, Linwoods and Meridian. It was all about educating, empowering and inspiring women. The whole event was incredible, but in particular the talk about self-love and confidence by Jacqueline Hurst really opened my eyes and made me think. I am proud to say that I love myself and I love my body. However, I realise that so many women aren’t there yet, and it is for these women that I want to share my thoughts on self-love:
Love yourself first. Before anything else. Before you lose weight. Before you get fit. Before you get your dream job, your dream life or your dream partner. You need to love yourself first. If you tell yourself “I’ll be happy with myself once I am a size 10” or “I will love myself once someone else loves me”… you will never be satisfied. Once you achieve these goals you will find something else you need to do before you’re happy. This leads to a vicious cycle or never truly being satisfied with yourself, your body and your life.
You are so much more than how you look. Think about your best friend. Why do you love them? I’m pretty certain is because of their kindness, sense of humour or intelligence… not their thigh gap or abs. People love you because you who you are. Not because of your appearance. Realise that. The moment we start to put value in our personalities rather than our looks, self-love is so much more achievable.
Love your imperfections. No one, and I mean no one, is perfect. Every single person has flaws. Every person has down days. Every person slips up, fails and is rejected. Every person cries. Your flaws do not define who you are. What matters is how you respond to them. Even if you can’t love them, at least try to accept them. We are all perfectly imperfect.
Self-love manifests as self-belief, and self-belief is infinitely powerful. When you are confident in who you are and your abilities, you can do anything you set your mind to. This gives you grit, the ability to get back up after rejection or failure and keep on trucking; and that is what leads to long term success.
It is ok to love yourself. No one is going to think you’re arrogant; and if anyone says anything negative about you it is a reflection of their own lack of self-worth. Especially in British society, it seems to be taboo to be confident or happy. We are all eager to be self-deprecating, pessimistic and negative. Break the mould. Smile at strangers, walk with a spring in your step and let your positivity light up a room.
So, thats my two cents on self-love. Of course I am not always this big six foot bundle of joy and happiness, like everyone else I have moments of self-doubt. However the vast majority of the time I am happy with who I am, and I want you to be happy with yourself too. I hope this post helped in some way, let me know your thoughts on the topic of self-love in a comment below or on social media!
Zanna xxx
