Before my journey to self acceptance and body appreciation I thought that punishing myself and my body would eventually lead to happiness.
I thought that if I just ate a little bit better, exercised a little bit longer and got a little bit thinner, I would be happy.
I thought that if I just changed everything I didn’t like about my body, I would finally be at peace with it.
Well I was wrong.
You can’t hate yourself happy. The more you try to change to avoid fear, pain or rejection- the further away you move from happiness.
The closer I got to my “dream body” or my “dream weight” the more things I found wrong with my body and the more weight I had to lose. I could never achieve happiness because I was chasing the wrong things.
Now, each day I work at liking my body as it is. Each day I focus on the positive things my body brings me. And each day I lean in to my body and trust that it knows best.
Unlearning that you don’t need to punish your body is one of the hardest things to do for so many reasons.
But everyday it gets a little easier.
Learning to love myself and my body as it is has been the greatest gift I’ve given myself. I finally have my life back and I no longer feel chained to exercise or imprisoned to diet culture.
I have found happiness, and I find it again everyday when I chose love instead of hate ❤️
xoxo
