Fake it 'till ya make it!

Few things worth doing are easy. Often, it is that which is most difficult for us to accomplish that become our greatest victories. I think that we often forget that something that is a challenge for us at a single juncture in time will not always be so, and that only through our perseverance will we be triumphant in our efforts. Changing the way we think may be one of the great challenges we ever face. As we've grown up, we have developed familiar patterns of thinking, paths which have been well worn by the numerous footprints of our thoughts. When we encounter something new and unfamiliar, our minds process whatever it may be in the same way we've learned to process everything.
So, when it comes to our self esteem and body image, we have laid a frequently traveled road across our minds, one that sports heavy traffic on a continuous basis. While this road is certainly not the only method of travel in our minds, it is the one we know best and hesitate to stray from for fear of becoming lost.
To put it simply, we are used to looking in the mirror and criticizing ourselves. We are used to thinking about how fat we are, about what we are dissatisfied with, about what can be changed. We are used to complaining about our bodies to our friends, and we are used to listening to our friends complain about their bodies to us.
What we are less familiar with is questioning these often traveled trails of thought, or with dismissing our negative attitudes and replacing them with self affirmations. What we are less familiar with is congratulating ourselves for being amazing people, for cheering up a friend, or for studying really hard for a test.
It is comfortable for us to treat ourselves poorly, to fixate on our flaws continuously and mercilessly. It's what our society has trained us to do.
But like I mentioned before, few things worth doing are easy, and though treating ourselves with the kindness and compassion that we so easily bestow upon others is far from the norm for many of us, I know that we will benefit enormously from trying. How could we not?
A while back, I heard someone say something that has never left my mind. She told me that it would take a long time for me to learn how to love myself, but that going through the motions would help me "fake it till I make it". That is, though I may not have been full of self love, by pretending that I was through non-passive actions like self affirmation, actively stopping my negative thought process, and focusing on my internal qualities, I would eventually begin to believe in myself and come to embrace myself as a good and worthwhile individual. As time has passed, I feel proud to say that I have begun to have to "fake it" less and less. Of course not everyday is a beacon of perfect self esteem, but who says I have to be perfect? ;) Life, as well as everything we do in life, is a process, and loving ourselves is no exception.
Keep up the great work, you're amazing!

Until next time,
Steph