ACCEPT WHO YOU ARE…

Accept who you are…

Nayyirah Waheed said it best,…”and I said to my body. Softly. ‘I want to be your friend.’ It took a long breath. And replied, ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this.’”

Just imagine… your body longing to be your friend. Your body longing for acceptance… The phrase, “we are our own worse critics” comes to mind when I think about how many of us view who we are in the mirror and become critical. How many of us compare ourselves to the reflection of someone else often. When will you accept your body and be its friend with no regard to how anyone else sees you?

Let’s consider how social media affects our perception of ourselves… what about those nay sayers? We scroll through profiles for hours comparing the lives of others… the body types of others…the careers of others… families… etc. and scroll by scroll we tear ourselves down and compare who we are against someone or something else.

Don’t allow those things to become a reflection of who you are… I was just having a conversation the other day and I told someone to “be who you are! Be better than you were yesterday! Be in competition with no one other than yourself!” Sometimes we get so caught up in others reality (or what the perception of their reality seems to be) and forget about all the good we have going on… all of the strides we have taken in our own lives… that we forget that we shouldn’t be living anyone’s else’s life but our own. Follow your own truth be a better you than you were hours ago… days ago… years ago…

I just realized the other day that I no longer look at my naked body in a full mirror…Reality hit me that I stopped looking at my body in it’s full capacity and it’s been in a long time. You may be asking what led you to this realization, lol Well, long story short… I had a bruise that I was unaware of… and when I finally realized it… it was going through the healing stages. So, I stood in the mirror to observe the rest of my body… give it a look over to make sure nothing else was falling apart, lol.

I gazed into my own eyes and then glanced down to my feet back to the top of my head and remembered a sit I had a week ago that spoke to this quote, “I said to my body. Softly. ‘I want to be your friend.’ It took a long breath. And replied, ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this.’ So, I repeated those words silently to myself and also thanked God for my flaws, my strength, my courage, my goals, and my willingness and need to accept me for who I am… I’m thankful for not longing to be someone any longer… I’m still working on some things but I’m thankful for being able to see and realize just that…while I still have work to do… I am my own friend and my body thanks me!

Try this love and kindness meditation.

For one minute, repeat ‘May I be happy, may I be well, may I accept who I am, may I be filled with kindness and peace.’ You can substitute “you” for “I” and think of someone you know and like, or just send love to all people. Do this whenever you feel the need… or you get caught up… this only takes 15 seconds.

Until next time Kings & Queens,

Fontashia