Life is too short, too precious, too arbitrary, too fleeting for you to spend one more minute, one more second at war with yourself. You know what I’m talking about.
When you look in the mirror and think ‘If I was just . . .’ Or when you debate in your head for twenty minutes about that really nice looking piece of pie. Or when you think to yourself ‘I should . . .’ Or when you talk to yourself like you don’t even like who you are, like you would never talk to anyone else.
How much time will you waste in this war with yourself? How many moments will you sacrifice to it? And when you get to the end of it, is it even justifiable?
Three years ago, I was so deeply uncomfortable with myself and with the way I looked. But if I could go back now and talk to that person I would tell her you don’t need to diet and exercise, you need to eat and move. Because all the joy, self confidence and freedom will come from allowing your body to do what it was born to do. Running isn’t a punishment for my body, it’s a celebration of everything it is capable of. I would tell myself back then that once you see what your body is capable of doing, it will be impossible for you to think one critical thought about it, no matter what it looks like.
To the outside, it might look like my body changed and so I changed how I felt about myself. But that is just untrue. It’s backwards. I changed how I felt about my body and then my life changed.
So when I see women being hard on themselves, their bodies and their achievements its heartbreaking to me. Because I remember what that was like. I remember that person who was so vulnerable and so completely unaware of just how tiny a cage she was building for herself.
If you have had a similar experience to me, it might be time to bust out of that cage, it might be time to love your body for what it can do, it might be time to celebrate that. It might be time to stop being at war with yourself.
If you are ready to start moving more and to stop the war with yourself, you might like our Learn to Run course. Registrations are open now.