Enjoy Being You

Another lesson from Mom. Enjoy being you! When I recently thought about how to help my 6 year old little girl grow up with the kind of confidence and self esteem we all wish for our children, I remembered many things my mother said to me. And then I thought about how I really learned to accept who I am.

This is one of the great moments in my life. Mom did tell me all the right things. and some really wrong ones. She absolutely hated my haircut when I was 12 and frowned at me for a month before I hacked at my bangs with the sissors. Then she took me for a 5 hour rescue mission to the hair salon. Anyway. The true power of the lesson didn't come from shopping trips or hair salons (which were all fun.) The lesson came in my late twenties when I thought back to the things my mother said about herself. For one she never put herself down. I never heard her say 'I need to lose weight.' or 'I hate this color on me.' or 'I wish my hair were thicker, my lashes longer...etc.' Mom often said, 'You have beautiful hair that people pay a lot of money to look like.' or 'This shirt will look great on you.' And sometimes she said things like, 'I really do like this blouse' or 'I love my new haircut.'

Mostly though I really think that my freedom to be happy with my imperfections came for a lifelong training not to dwell on them. Mom's few imperfections never slowed her down or kept her from being a fantastic person or lessened her dignity. So it never occurred to me to let the fact that my nose is larger than I want or any weigh I gain all goes right to belly fat...stop me from being who I want to be.

Enjoy being you, the brilliant, lovely, funny, articulate, best you that you can be and don't dwell on the negative. I really believe that as I work hard to change the things I don't like about my body without being negative that my daughter will grow up with a confidence that she is worth more than her pretty face and that if she doesn't like her hair color, that's what salons are for. It doesn't change the person she is inside and as she enjoys being herself others will love knowing her.

Thanks for the lesson, Mom.