You are beautiful: Learning to love yourself

You are beautiful, you may just not know it yet.

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You Are Beautiful

I grew up in a dysfunctional family, was emotionally manipulated and emotionally abused growing up. As a little girl, I thought it was “normal” but as I grew I struggled with many things because of it.

Because of the words said about my appearance I was overly conscious of my body. I stared at myself in the mirror daily, finding yet another flaw. Slowly beautiful features of my body were attacked one after another by my own self-doubt. I started weighing myself daily, exercising daily with a goal of losing that small curve on my waist.

The beautiful love handles God gave me slowly started to fade away, my ribs started showing more and more. I started eating a little less at every meal. I was very conscious not to become anorexic, but I got as close to the line as I could.

I wanted to be able to look at myself and feel beautiful but that was rarely the word I would describe myself as.

Then, I met a boy who told me every day how genuinely beautiful I was. In 3 years of dating and now 5 years of marriage, he never once has said a negative thing about my body. He told me I was beautiful so often that slowly the thought became mine.

Ever so slowly I would look in the mirror and start to see a small glimpse of beauty in myself.

Ever so slowly I started eating an extra bite or two at each meal.

And one day, I stopped weighing myself. To this day, I rarely step on a scale and only roughly know how much I weigh. I know I’m healthy.

And I know I’m beautiful.

You are beautiful, too.

In my life, the Lord used a handsome young boy who had my heart to speak words of truth to me until they became my own thoughts.

Your thoughts are your highest power.

It was a journey. But I can now look in the mirror and I see a beautiful woman looking back at me. Someone who I have come to love dearly. Someone who I had to learn to love.

Feeling beautiful was my first step to loving myself.

Learning to Love Yourself Challenge

Whether you believe it yet or not, tell yourself “I’m beautiful” 2x a day. Once when you first wake up and once before you go to bed.

If you can, get a friend in on it, too. To begin the journey it will likely be easier to say “You are beautiful” to each other than saying “I’m beautiful” to yourself. That’s a perfect place to start.

Whether it be in person or through a text, Snapchat or Facebook tell each other “You are beautiful” daily. Set your phone on a daily alarm for the same time each day. Mine goes off at 12:02, when I hear it go off I send a simple text to my dear friend.

Others can be a strong tool in our transformations.

If you can’t find a friend, set your daily alarm and when it goes off, voice the words “I’m beautiful” to yourself. As hard as it may be to say, say the words aloud. Even if you don’t believe the words yet, say them to yourself as kindly as you can.

Throughout the day if you find yourself judging your body, as quickly as you can, forgive the thought. If you have the willpower to change the thought to a beautiful thought instead, do so. Either way, forgive the thought and consciously breath it out of your body.

Click here to print this gorgeous printable as a reminder.

Put one in each room of your house and on every mirror.

You can also hit scale to fit and print 4 per page.

GET THE PRINTABLE: I am beautiful. I am loveable. I love myself.

I also highly recommend the book Breaking Free by Beth Moore.

It is SO good.

You should see my book, almost every page has multiple things underlined and circled.

In fact, it hit me so deep I might make this a yearly read.

I bought a used copy online for less than $4 or the library might have it as well.

 

And before you go… I hope you join our tribe, you beautiful women.

I can not wait to watch your inner transformation.

You are beautiful.

Choose the Next Post You Want to Explore:

• Enjoy Your Life + A 30 Day Challenge
• How Changing One Word Will Help You Succeed At Anything

P.S. Are you looking for extra side income? I make full-time income blogging part-time—check out this easy step-by-step tutorial on how start a blog (no tech knowledge required).