Be Your Own Best Friend

You know that one friend you have who is just super judgemental, constantly points out your flaws, and anytime you’re with them you feel really bad about yourself and like nothing you do is ever enough?

You’re probably thinking, umm no. I don’t have a friend like that, why would I? Well I’m going to let you in on a little secret, you do. Take a good long look in the mirror because we ALL do that to ourselves! (If you actually do have a ‘friend’ like this, ditch them. ASAP! You’re worth more than feeling like shit because you spend time around someone like that. Just send them love from afar and move on!)

How many times have you stood in front of a mirror, or looked at a picture of yourself or received a compliment and then completely ripped yourself apart? I’ve been known to take this to the mat at yoga. During some classes I love to really go inwards and keep my eyes closed as much as possible in order to feel the movement and let go of anything and everything that is causing me stress or cluttering my brain. Occasionally I’m just not able to, and I go all yoga douche on myself. My evil twin comes out and starts telling me I ‘should’ be able to do a pose a certain way, or I’m not flexible enough (stay tuned for a post on this frequently used statement) and if I’m not careful I come out of that class feeling the same or worse than I entered it! FAIL!

What if, instead of beating ourselves up, we treated ourselves like we treat our best friends?

At some point in your life you came up with a standard of who you should be (spoiler alert it was probably a company trying to make money from you or someone who doesn’t like themselves very much) and you started to believe these lies.

“You’re not smart enough”

“You’re not tall enough”

“You’re not thin enough”

“You’re not strong enough”etc. etc. and soon the “you’re” becomes the “I’m”

Would you EVER say these types of things to your friend? My guess is probably not! So why do we do this to ourselves?

What if, instead of telling ourselves we aren’t _________enough we all just started speaking to ourselves like we do our friends?

If this seems impossible, here’s a little exercise for you:

Get a Post-it pad and a sharpie. Think of all the things you want to believe about yourself that you don’t currently and write them down. So for example: “I am beautiful inside and out” or “I Do Enough, I Have Enough, I AM enough” (Keep the statements in the first person so that if you read them you’re affirming them) and then post them to a mirror you frequently look at. Read them aloud wherever possible.

If this is hard, grab a friend and have them write them for you! Ask them to write things they want you to believe about yourself. Try to have at least two about who you are as a person, and not what you look like. You are SO much more than a body!!