Exploring self love

I'm working away, right now, on the topic of self love.

According to my notes from Shawna's program, 'self love represents feelings of kindness, acceptance, forgiveness and compassion towards oneself.'

I find this interesting, for a couple of reasons.

One, I am working so very hard to build these skills into my kiddos' DNA. I ask them to use kind words, accept classmates despite their quirks, forgive each other and be patient with themselves as they learn new things at school and in life. I hope these life lessons will result in kids who genuinely care about others, empathize with their friends and learn patience in the face of adversity.

Two, I am terrible at this. I am severely deficient in forgiveness for myself on bad days, and I struggle every. single. day. to accept my new body and the words which come out of my mouth when annoyed or angry with my kids.

Shawna's notes suggest that a lack of self-love largely influences our ability to follow an authentic path. This makes sense to me,  as I feel discomfort with my current self.

So.
I am teaching my kiddos one thing.
But living another in my head.
Hmm.

It's time to change this.

This is terrifying.

F-A-T

I hate that word more than most in the English language. Most people who know me aren't surprised by my propensity to swear, however one word you will never hear me use is F-A-T.

It's a major piece of my worthiness. My weight. My size.
I'd say this is an embarrassing thing to admit, but I suspect many of my girlfriends and female family members feel much the same way.

I judge myself based on the size of my clothes.
The number on the scale.
The rolls I never used to have.
This extra... larger than before body mass that I swore I'd never have. Own. Rent.

But man oh man, it's here now.
I am so embarrassed by it. I find myself doing two things regularly:

1. Assuming, when meet someone, they are looking at my body in disgust. I hear things like, 'she thinks I'm the F-A-T mom' and 'wow she got big after her kids were born' most times I meet someone.

and

2. Quickly, and without fail, telling near strangers about how big I am, and how I know I need to lose weight. How's that for a conversation starter? Oi.

Then, last week this meme popped up on my Facebook newsfeed:

Hmm.
That is a pretty worthy statement.
I have learned, through meditation, to separate my thoughts from myself. I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts.

Why shouldn't I look at my F-A-T the same way?
This meme actually led me to admit something else to myself...

I've been punishing myself, for this extra F-A-T, but avoiding clothes shopping. I have purchased so few items for myself the last two years, always rationalizing it by saying I'll lose the F-A-T and get back into my old clothes.

Well, guess what?
That was a terrible idea.

I have managed to erode my self-worth to the point I need to blog about it :)
All kidding aside, I have struggled with this feeling ever since Ethan was born.

Two and a half years.
Why then? Why still now?

That I don't have the answer to, just yet.