When I was little I had this picture frame in my bathroom.
But the picture frame never actually held a photo in it.
Instead the picture frame held a big 5×8 notecard. Ya know those big notecards that pre-med students use to study with? Yeah, my picture frame was filled with a new one of those notecards every week or so.
And when I was sleeping my parents would tip toe into my room, and then into my bathroom, to leave me a new 5×8 notecard to wake up to.
The notes they left in my picture frame usually consisted of them telling me how proud they were of me, or how much they love me.
These notes filled me with so much joy. Mainly because it was something new.. in my bathroom… for me. I mean it was like a little present!
Time went by and I wasn’t a little kid anymore. And the notecard surprises started to subside.
And of course, with growing up comes well, growing up.
Growing up I had some major self confidence issues.
I feel like anyone can attest. Struggling to like yourself sucks because you have to accept yourself before you can really start to enjoy any other part of life.
In other words, since I lacked self confidence, I lacked enjoyment of life.
I just want to interrupt where I am going with this to say something. If you are in a season where accepting yourself isn’t easy, give yourself grace. Be patient with yourself. This journey to acceptance isn’t going to be perfect, because you my friend aren’t perfect either.
Anyways, I lacked enjoyment of life because I wasn’t happy with who I was
And quite frankly, I wanted to start enjoying my life. (You do too, right?!)
You deserve to enjoy your life and feel comfortable in the skin you were made to be in.
Like I said the journey is not easy.
But I want to share how I started to attempt to love myself.
I did it in such a small and easy way you guys. And I KNOW you guys can do it too.
So do you remember how I said that my parents used to write me little notes about how wonderful I am? And how they used to sneak the notecards in my bathroom before I woke up in the morning?
You remember? Okay good.
Well, I decided that I wanted to reintroduce the idea of waking up to a notecard back into my life- but with a little twist.
Here’s how it works: every Sunday night I sit down with a 5×8 notecard. And I set myself up for the week.
I write down 8 things I know about myself and turn them into love statements.
For example, “I know that I am kind” turns into “I love that I am kind”
Then, once I get my 8 things about myself onto paper, I write down 5 goals I have for the upcoming week.
Oh, and if you think I am talking about some huge massive goal… YOU’RE WRONG.
For example a goal that I wrote down in high school sounded like this, “ask the girl who sits next to me in class how the band competition went this past weekend”
Yes. It got that specific and that easy. These goals can look like anything you want- as long as they FILL YOU UP.
For me, I like to remind myself to check in on others and make that extra effort so they know that they are loved (because it fills me up).
What fills you up might look different. Is it trying that new Starbucks coffee? Is it walking your dog? Is it reading for 10 min. before bed?
This “goal” can be ANYTHING as long as it is small and it fills you up.
So let me recap this. My 5×8 notecards are done every Sunday night. I write 8 things I know about myself and turn them into love statements. Then I write 5 specific “goals” I have for myself. Then I leave it at my bathroom sink for me to read every morning when I get up.
I want to challenge you to do the same for yourself. You can start small. Do you want to write 3 love statements about yourself instead of 8? Go for it. Do you think you can only start by writing out good things that people say about you? Start there then.
You are amazing in every way and deserve to feel that way too. LOVE ALWAYS. Self love and confidence is a beautiful thing and it’s hard and it takes a long time. But it’s worth it, my friend. You are worth it.
