By: Lina Midla

Hey Gorgeous! Yes you! Yes, stop looking around the room, I’m talking to you. You are gorgeous, you radiate beauty, and this post was written just for YOU. Now stop thinking of all the reasons you think you aren’t amazing and just keep reading.

Working in the fitness industry interacting with fitness pros, instructors, clients, even friends and family who, from the outside, seem to have it all together (the body, the looks, the jobs, the life), I’ve come to learn that no matter how it looks from the outside, EVERYBODY has insecurities. As obvious as this discovery may appear, we get so hyper analytical of all of our short-comings, that we forget about all the wonderful things that we have going for us. We forget that we get to put our best self out to the world and that most people don’t see the tiny little things that we constantly obsess over. From the outside people just see YOU – they see your happiness, confidence, gratitude. They see your talents, your abilities, your passions. Beauty truly radiates from the inside out. So why would we ever want to hold ourselves back from beauty and greatness by fixating on some little thing that no one can see or cares about anyway (and if they do care about it, what does that say about the kind of person THEY are)?

It’s time to hang-up your hang-ups.

It’s time to put that Negative Nancy to rest. Once you start thinking positively and focusing on your strengths, interactions with others, and Big Lofty Goals, the fact that your bubble butt won’t get any less bubbly, no matter what you do, begins to fall into the shadows and matter less. Dove did an experiment recently where women were asked to describe themselves to a sketch artist, and then another person described each woman to a sketch artist. Do you know what they found? We are our own worst critics! We think we’re worse, uglier, worth less than any other person thinks we are. We pick ourselves to shreds, while from the outside people see us as the beautiful whole person that we are.

Ok, you’re starting to realize that it’s true, you do pick yourself apart and you want to stop – but how? When your mind goes to that place where you start evaluating and cataloguing each large pore, each gray hair, the circumference of your arms/bust/waist/hips/thighs, take a deep breath in, exhale and let that ugly, nasty, self-destructive thought go! Then, say to yourself, “I’m awesome.” Seriously – positive thinking is SO powerful! Replace the negative hateful thought with an awesome loving one, and see how good that feels.

You are worth so much more than the sum of your parts.

Here’s the bottom line: you are more special than your weight, you are more radiant than the oily patch on your forehead, your body is strong, capable and ready to serve you. The secret is out, we ALL have imperfections and insecurities. When are you going to start treating yourself the way you deserve to be treated – as the beautiful, strong, inspiring, rockstar that you are?

My hope is that you now feel empowered to begin to change your perspective of yourself. To begin to see all the wonderful things that you are, and to begin to let go of the negativity inside. It’s not going to happen overnight, and you won’t be rid of your insecurities forever. However, the more you focus on the things that matter – your BLGs, your relationships, your passions –  the less time you have to obsess, the less important those things become and the more you are able to share your unique beauty with the world.

Go Get ’em Gorgeous!

Photo Credit: Britt Leigh Design + Photography