We’ve all had one of those days, weeks, or sometimes months where you feel down about yourself. It happens to the best of us, hell it happened it to me just yesterday!! Even after all the work I’ve done clearing my skin, balancing my hormones, and generally making peace with myself and my body, days like this still creep up on me.
After traveling with my boyfriend and my best friend, I got in a scooter accident while riding on some particularly rough roads in search of a “secret beach” on a small island in Indonesia. I scraped up my foot pretty bad and was left with a deep gash near my toe. Over the next several days, being home bound and inactive started to get to me. I began to feel frustrated and angry that I couldn’t go surfing or swimming or hardly walk around and enjoy the things I love to do. I hated that I didn’t know how long this would last, how long it would take to heal. I started to eat more sweets than I normally do. I started to emotionally eat. I started to feel bloated and fat and ugly. “You are so fat right now, who would want to be with you” I would tell myself as I looked down at my bloated self. Negative thought loops started to play in my head: “Your life is such a mess right now, YOU ARE A MESS.”
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of beating myself up and talking myself down, I came out of it long enough to see that I needed to CLIMB out of it. Climb I did. After getting up out of the storm of feeling low, I felt inspired to write a short guide for you on the days where you feel lost, fat, ugly and depressed.
1. GET CENTERED. When was the last time you meditated, were physically active, or spent some time in nature?? Not sure? Well I wasn’t either. A Lot of my centering habits went awry on this particular trip. These same habits help to protect you from feeling crappy about yourself or life in general. WHY? Because they keep you connected and centered to your true self beneath the damaged ego. They connect you to a sense of something greater than yourself and help to literally rewire your brain to stay in the present moment instead of fretting over the future or past. Being present gives you perspective. It helps you to not buy into the stories we often tell ourselves that make us feel bad about who we are or where we are in life. In a word, they keep you CENTERED.
2. GET GRATEFUL: After a good long meditation session I felt LOADS BETTER! Like a huge weight had lifted. I got perspective, I saw things clearly again. After a moment of clarity, I smacked myself on the head “DUH!!” WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAT DOWN AND SAID WHAT YOU WERE GRATEFUL FOR??? SERIOUSLY. I am asking you ;) gratitude is POWERFUL. It has the ability to affect healing and has the power to lift you out of a funk. When you start to count your blessings and start to appreciate what you LOVE about yourself, it gives you perspective. Sit down and write out all the things you love about yourself: the gifts you have, your talents or skills, how you show up in your relationships, your eyes, your heart, your spirit! LOVE ALL OF IT. Sometimes we need just enough perspective to help realize that we are beautiful, awesome and exactly where you should be in life.
3. BE KIND TO YOURSELF: This goes with everything that you do in your daily life. In the way that you talk to yourself, in the way you show up in relationships, and ESPECIALLY when it comes to nutrition and how you feed yourself. Feeding your body clean food is one of the best ways to cultivate self-love. The act of finding the highest quality ingredients, and feeding your body for nourishment rather than filling your hunger, you are honoring your body and what it does for you every day, and you are honoring yourself. When you abuse your body with food, you are punishing yourself. BE KIND, and LOVE YOURSELF IN THIS POWERFUL WAY.
4. MOVE YOUR BODY: One of the worst things you can do when you are in a funk is wallow in it. i.e. Sitting on your butt all day, pounding ben and jerry’s chunky monkey while binge watching the first few seasons of friends. How would I know? Because that was my go to tactic when I was feeling bad about myself. The thing about this tactic is it may temporarily numb you from how you are feeling but it DOESN’T SOLVE ANYTHING. You might be amazed how much fresh air and sunshine can do for your stress and your self-esteem. Moving in a way that makes you feel ALIVE, FREE, AND WILD, shakes you out of your funk and into the rhythm and spirit of LIFE. Go out and Dance like no one is watching, take a walk in nature, run your heart out, kick the sh*** out of a bean bag, do some yoga, go for a swim in the ocean, get your heart pumping and keep your body moving! By the end you will have let go of whatever was so “terrible” about yourself and remember how good it is to be alive in the first place!
We All have those moments in life where we feel low about ourselves, but if you follow these four steps, you are bound to see the real beauty that inhabits you and inhabits the life you lead. It’s already there waiting to be seen ;)
