Good Practice

Whether or not you believe in psychics, here's a lil anecdote from my visit with the most bona fide seer I've ever met. (She called people by their names, we'd never met before, she didn't know anything about me, and she just knew things)

We talked about my (lack of) career, my dreams, my aspirations, my struggles, and finally, about my weight and my self-esteem/body issues. She gave me a really helpful pointer that I have been employing for about eight months now, and I have found it to be immensely helpful.

Every time the Negative Nancy in my brain wants to tell me how a shirt looks like shit because my boobs are so big, or that my face is looking fat because I'm retaining water, or my hair is just plain busted, or that my upper arms resemble sides of ham, I stop the self-hating, and I repeat in my mind, over and over again, I'm beautiful. I'm beautiful. I'm beautiful.

I didn't immediately see any results; the mean voice in my brain still had plenty to say about everything. But eventually, over time (and I just realized this today), the voice got much quieter, and much less critical. I look in the mirror now, and I don't always like what I see, but instead of thinking, sweet Jeebus, why can't I have a waistline? I think, wow, my lips are perfect. The negative commentary has slowly but surely turned into a positive commentary, focused not so much on all the things I'd like to change, but the pieces and parts that I find beautiful and lovely about myself.

Try it for a week; it's nice to reaffirm yourself when you really want to beat yourself down. The more that positive thinking is employed consciously, the sooner the unconscious hops on that band wagon, too. And the sooner we love ourselves unconsciously, the sooner that good decision making becomes a part of healthy lives, and not just a quest for a quick fix.

Big love.