It is no secret that women struggle with loving themselves, and honestly, you probably know all the reasons we could list.  

Instead, I want to focus on what it feels like to love yourself.  

The process of loving yourself is a journey, every day its working on turning off the negative thoughts, turning off the comparison engine, and looking at yourself with fresh eyes of approval.

I went through a lot of years of not loving anything about myself.  First of all, I am 6 feet tall, so I am large anyway, but I also always saw myself overweight and therefore un-self-lovable.

Here are a few things I would do that I didn't even notice I was doing to compensate for my lack of self-love:

1.  While on airplanes, I would try take up as little room as possible. I would keep my legs locked together and off to the side so the person next to me wouldn't feel like I was taking up too much room.  This, by the way, is very uncomfortable.

2. I would take FOR.EV.ER to get ready to leave the house to do anything.  I used make-up, hair, and my outfits to hopefully distract any strangers from seeing my large size.

3.  I would shrink in photos...this is still something I struggle a little with.  In January of this year we were in Miami Florida for Wodapalooza.  We had athletes come in and take pics and I remember trying to shrink my 6 foot frame down by bending over, being my legs, or sticking my butt to the back of the photo so the rest would look smaller.  It's madness...I know.   I looked back at the pictures and was sad that I didn't stand tall, proud of my strength, my height, my legs, butt, arms...etc...

I can see while writing this, that my self-dislike rooted from being concerned for acceptance from others as validation for being good enough. hmmmm 🧐

But now...

Its like I finally hit a point in my journey for self love that I am recognizing I am not doing those things above.  Things I didn't even know I was doing out of self-dislike until I had self-love.

I will not sit uncomfortably on a plane anymore.  My seat and leg room is mine.

I love make-up...but I wear way way way less and feel 100% comfortable to leave the house without it and hold my head high while out.

I will not shrink myself in photos any more. I am tall and muscly and I need to deal with it. LOL

What about you?  

Leave a comment below and share you journey, what self-love means to you, or anything else you feel like sharing ❤️