New year, new you? NOPE!
It is the time of year when the airwaves are filled with messages of resolutions guaranteed to make our lives better, our bodies slimmer and our wallets fatter.
But this year, instead of buying into the BS diet culture, what if we resolved to stop resolving?
What if we embraced the thought that happiness lies within? We do not have to wait for the clock to strike midnight to find happiness. Our chance at a better life, health, happiness, etc. starts NOW – not one day from now, not next Monday and certainly not one year from now.
It starts NOW.
Rather than focusing on what/who we need to become, try focusing on the extraordinary person you already are and other invaluable things in your life. Look at all of the amazing things you do (and juggle) in a day – the family, career, school, recovery! The list goes on because you, yes you, are amazing in this moment! Your worth is not attached by a number on the scale or any other external factor. Of course, that is not what the multi-billion-dollar diet industry wants us to believe. They want us to buy in to the notion that we will be happier when we hit that ‘goal’ weight or rock those ‘skinny’ jeans.
But those picture-perfect bodies we see in the media aren’t really bodies at all. They have been carefully sculpted by a computer. But let’s say you magically obtained the unattainable perfect body, would it really make you happy and make all of life’s problems disappear?
That ‘beach body’ does not change who you are. And the new year does not make your troubles disappear. It also does not change the family and friends around you. It does not change their love for you because your outside appearance has little (read: nothing) to do with your happiness. That real happiness and peace starts within. I realize that sounds like an inspirational poster with a kitten, but you and I both know it is true.
Take it from someone who almost lost her life trying to get that perfect body in hopes to uncover happiness and self-love. I never found it in the perfect body, rather I found it at rock bottom. I finally stopped resolving to find happiness in my body and began to create my own joy.
Set a resolution to join the self-love revolution! Change starts with you, not when the clock strikes midnight on December 31! Start with making positive changes in you and your family’s lives each and every day. Use language that raises you up and not tear you down.
Recovery is hard. Recovery is REALLY hard this time of year when all we hear are weight loss ads. Honor the challenges that arise at this time of year and combat them with positive self-talk. Recovery does not happen because the clock strikes midnight. We have to choose recovery every minute of every day and each time we make that choice our feet get a little firmer on recovery’s beautiful and bumpy path.
Join the self-love revolution!