Can I be honest with you? I am stuck when it comes to writing this week on the matters of self worth, body image, and inner beauty. I had the words to write about life simplified, but the thoughts are not completely ripe. I wanted to write more about where I am at with my anxiety, but I am still in the middle of that too. I started to write about moving past disappointment and how realistic expectations set you up for loving yourself, and your life, more --but my page on the topic? Still blank. And I really wanted to write about how I am learning to be truer to myself, and more caring toward myself, but those words, well--not ready to be picked, still needing time to grow.
I've been trying to write for the Love Yourself Linkup for two days. And it has been a pattern of typing a paragraph, deleting a paragraph, typing, and deleting. Then repeat that a few more times. You see, I'm stuck.
To write the way I write best, solitude is essential. I can hardly hear myself clearly when I am surrounded by the things that I let myself get distracted by. Key phrase--let myself. I write best when I leave my house, take my computer or journal, and just go sit awhile. In the busiest coffee shop, I can find more solitude than in the quiet of my home at times. Can you relate? That has been me this week: Lacking solitude, even in the quiet and still that our home provides. And getting distracted --by everything.
Perhaps to love myself better, I need to extend more grace and be okay with not having my thoughts spilled out "on paper" or pieced together "on time". I need to love myself even when I'm stuck, distracted, or lacking the words.
The place I have found the most clarity this week has been in the pool. And while not much writing happens while swimming, ripening of thoughts and an intrinsic fulfillment so essential to reflection happens for me there. So, while I don't have much to write today for the Love Yourself Linkup, I wanted to share the quote that has lingered in my mind, over and over, while swimming this week.
"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why."--Mark Twain
Here's to extending grace. Because I need to do it more often. Here's to being distracted. Since it seems to be my jam these days. Here's to the growing and ripening of thoughts. And the part where we wait and may lack words to fruition. Here's to the process of finding out why. Why we are born, what we are meant to do, and loving ourselves to the core while doing it. Loving ourselves, because we are worth every bit of it.
