It is Valentine's Day.
Have you ever considered writing a love letter...to yourself?
I'm going to challenge you to do just that.
I can't exactly give you a challenge and not challenge myself to the same task. You need not share your personal love letter, but I am strongly encouraging you to write one. For the sake of accountability, as well as sharing more of my personal story, I am posting my love letter here.
Dear Misty,
I know that sometimes you feel like you are not enough. You go through phases of feeling unpretty, unworthy, and even unlovable. You struggle with trying to suppress parts of yourself that you feel the world around you should not see. You try to hide the hurt, pain, and frustration that you feel. I know that you have spent most of your life trying to be the person that you felt everyone around you wanted you to be.
Knowing all of those things about you does not make me love you less. In fact, it makes me love you even more. I think it is time for me to tell you why I love you so much.
I want you to know that I see you and that you are, and have always been, enough. You love hard and you give all of yourself that you have to give. You are constantly striving to provide, learn, and grow so that you can make the world around you better for those that you love and care for. I see you striving to always be a better version of yourself so that you can share with others how they can improve themselves as well.
I need you to know that you are absolutely beautiful! Your genuine smile lights up your entire face. You have gorgeous and very expressive eyes. Your hair is amazing and the cut really accentuates your face. You are the perfect height and wear heels like you were born to do it. Your body is strong and you are working daily to keep it healthy and encourage it to be fit. You have beautiful and strong hands. These are all fine attributes, but please know that you radiate true beauty when you allow your true self to shine through all of the protective walls that you have built up around yourself. It is YOU...the inner you, that is truly beautiful.
You are and have always been worthy of all the best things in life. You have never had to work for this worthiness. You were born with it because you were created by God just as you are. It is ok for you to just accept this as fact because that is what it is...a fact. Nothing that you have said or done, no decision you have made, nothing that you have lived through can change it. You Are Worthy of all the best that you can imagine. It is yours if you just believe it to be true.
It goes without saying that you are loveable. You know that you are loved by your family, but you are also loved by the many people that surround you. Please know that I love you too. I am with you 100% of the time and I have come to love everything about you. I love you at your best and I love you at your worst. I love you on your good days and I love you on your bad days. There was a time that I didn't love you, but I needed to learn how. I needed to learn to accept who you are and I needed to forgive those who had hurt you. I needed to forgive you for the things that you had done and the choices that you had made. I needed to accept that all that you did was done in the mindset of low self-love and esteem. You acted out of lack. I needed to learn to give you grace. I needed to learn to give you room to grow and heal. I need to learn to be gentle with you and to speak kindly to you. I love you so much more now than ever, and it is a powerful love. It is a protective love.
I have been with you since the beginning, and I know of all the hurt and trauma that you have endured. I was with you in your childhood when your innocence was taken from you. I was with you in your turbulent teen years. I was there in your first marriage when you were relentlessly cheated on and mentally and emotionally abused. I was with you in your second marriage when you felt like nothing you did was right and you struggled daily to hold everything together. I have been here while you struggled with mom-guilt for the decisions you have made that have affected your children in any negative way. I watched as you survived cancer not once but twice. I've been with you each and every day that you have struggled with your body weight and the bullying that came with it. I was there when you hid who you were to be everything that everyone around you felt that you needed to be, no matter how exhausting it was. I was with you when you experienced extreme pain in all forms. I have seen you try to hide it all and pretend that you were happy and well.
I was there when you made the painful decision to make changes and learn to love yourself. I was with you when you forced yourself to look in the mirror for the first time and really try to find something you liked. I was there when you had to start catching all the nasty and hateful things you were saying to yourself in your own head. I was there when you had to work hard to change the way you fed your body to better nourish it. I was along for the first hard workout and how scared you were to give up on yourself...again. I was with you when you learned that you had to stand up for yourself and set personal boundaries. I have watched you as you learned what your true likes and dislikes are. I was with you when you had to face your traumas and fear and work through them so that you could heal. I was with you when you had to make hard life choices for yourself that you knew were going to hurt others. I was with you when you slept for hours as your body relaxed and healed from years and years of stress and trauma. I was with you when your life started to get better and happier. I was so proud to be with you when you started to make better and healthier choices for yourself and your life as you healed and learned to really love and accept yourself for who you are. I loved seeing the pure joy radiate from you as you found your true, beautiful self.
I am so proud of you for not allowing yourself to stagnate in the muck of your negative experiences. I am impressed that you have used your life as a catalyst to become better, stronger, and more positive. I am able to write this love letter to you today because you made the decision to learn to love who you are no matter what that looked like. I am able to confess my undying love to you because you have fearlessly looked at all that you are and all that you have lived through and learned to embrace it and move forward with love and compassion, not only for yourself but for everyone because you see that you are no different from the person next to you.
I love that you are not willing to rest on what you have learned so far but that you are thirsty for more! I love that you are on a path of continued growth and on a quest for deeper self-love. I love that you know that your journey isn't done until you take your last breath and that you plan on living life and love to the absolute fullest! I love that you have created a life for yourself so far that is full of love, joy, fulfillment and blessings. I love that you have found a partner in life that loves and accepts you for who you are as you do for yourself and that you love him in equal measure.
I am proud of you for the desire to share your story, not for pity, but to give hope. I love that you are making it your life's work to help others to find their way to loving themselves and living their genuinely best lives.
I love you and I appreciate you. I value your strength and resilience. I admire your drive and perseverance. I stand in awe of your courage and determination. You are incredible and you have a powerful message of love and hope to share with the world.
Love Always,
Misty
Your letter will be different because we all have different mileage. I just hope that you can express to yourself how amazing you really are today and every day.
If you need help learning to love yourself, check out my guided journals. I am writing them for that very purpose. :)
Don't forget:
You Are Beautiful!
You Are Amazing!
You Are Worthy!
and
I Believe In You!
As always, your mileage may vary...
Much Love,
Lady Misty