Being YOU!

 You ROCK! You are GREAT! You are BEAUTIFUL in all of your AWESOMENESS! Go run and look at yourself in the mirror really quick. Ok, you’re back! Catch your breath. Ok, you know that person that you just saw in the mirror? Well, that’s YOU and God made YOU just the way you are! I thought I would open up this post like that. You know why, because EVERYBODY is struggling with some kind of insecurity even the famous people. Really? Yes! Plastic surgeons, hairstylists, and makeup artists to the stars are being paid off of these people’s INSECURITIES. Whatever they don’t like about themselves, they PAY big bucks to have it changed. But you know what this does? It creates a toxic cycle of UNSATISFACTION. These people will never be completely satisfied with how they look because they’ve unknowingly conditioned themselves to believe that there will ALWAYS be something about them that needs to be fixed. Sad but true.

 I’ve struggled with my own insecurities since I was thirteen. My insecurities got worse when I went to high school. My hair came out my sophomore year after being over processed by a perm. (PERMS are the DEVIL’S PUDDING!) My acne was out of control and my clothes never seemed to fit me right. I remember hating my life and hating myself. So I created a girl in my head. This girl was the girl I WANTED TO BE. I named her Fatima. She had no self esteem issues. Her clothes fit her right, her face was clear, and she wasn’t bald as a goose. I lived in my head where this girl thrived. I didn’t relinquish her from my psyche until I met my first boyfriend in college. I was a little more comfortable with myself then, just barely though. (That’s another story) I share this little bit though to emphasize that at some point of our lives we have desired to be someone other than ourselves. Maybe you wanted to be someone that you know personally, or the person you wanted to be you made them up like me. You may even admit that you wanted to be like a celebrity you idolized.

NEVERTHELESS, you wanted to be like SOMEBODY else for a minute because you wasn’t or AREN’T HAPPY WITH YOURSELF. Say what? I’m writing, to tell you it is time to disenfranchise yourself from that way of thinking, It’s time to be HAPPY with just BEING YOU! It took me a minute to get to this place where I can comfortably say I am HAPPY WITH ME! I don’t give a DAMN what anybody else has to say about SHE ME HER. And I will give you a mean Bruce Lee kick (HIYA!) if you DARE try to tell me that I should change something about myself to look or be like another person! Somebody say, “You can MISS ME WITH THAT!”

Psalm 139:13-14 

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” 

Psalm 139:14 is a very wonderful and popular scripture that I took a liking to when I started the process of training MYSELF to LOVE ME FOR ME! I even wrote it on a post it note and put it on my bathroom mirror. Because I was so mentally disturbed and utterly disgusted with ME that I couldn’t stand to look at my reflection. (Yeah it was that bad yo!) So how do you train yourself to be happy BEING YOU? FIRST, you need to destroy comparisons and disassociate yourself from anyone that tries to compare you to someone else other than JESUS! You could never be good at playing the role of someone that is NOT YOU! Second, you need to treat yourself with the LOVE AND APPRECIATION that you would expect from the people you know and ACTIVATE an INTOLERANCE for people who can’t comply with those standards. No one can LOVE YOU BETTER THAN YOU and if you got some people in your circle that ain't trying to give you that kind of love tell them to MOVE AROUND! (plain and simple) LAST, but not least, if there is anything that you want to change about yourself CHANGE IT! But only change it, if it allows you to continue to EMBRACE YOU, BEING YOU! Just whatever you do, DON’T CROSS OVER TO THAT PLACE OF SUPERFICIALITY! Please don’t my dear! That’s that dark place where you risk becoming UNSATISFIED with who you are and thus you rely on what you have or how you look to seek approval from others. (NOT A GOOD LOOK FAM!)

I typically like to change my hair or wear a color that I don’t wear as often. But you will NEVER see anything on my body ENHANCED OR ALTERED! I’m good yo! Lol. Welp, it looks like you have yourself a challenge, a GOOD CHALLENGE THOUGH! I hereby challenge you to follow those three steps in the previous paragraphs I gave you. And you have to actually make these steps a SOLID part of your life. After awhile you won’t even notice that you’re doing them. But you WILL notice that your self esteem will increase and you’ll have a more HEALTHIER view of yourself. Most importantly, you will be comfortable BEING YOU! Just do it! You’ll like the way you look, I guarantee it! ;-)