Love Letter, by Sonya Johnson from prettygirlsrockdresses.com

Love Letter, by Sonya Johnson from prettygirlsrockdresses.com

January 12th, 2012 // 1:04 pm @ Janine and Alane

Love Letter

Today, I wanted to discuss “Love”. Now before you think this is a blog about relationships and being in love with your boo, it’s not. I’m talking about self-love. I know that you would think that if anyone who accepted this challenge must already love themselves if they are considering themselves a “Pretty Girl” who will rock dresses. Surprising, there are some of us who accepted this challenge who are struggling with self-love and their self-image and this challenge may be a kick start to a change in a new direction. This is a journey that I started myself years ago. Trust me; I have made tremendous gains over the years. I admit that I sometimes try to fall back but I have learned how to get back to loving me. So today I want to share some tips I have used (and still do) that may help you (or someone that you know is struggling with issues of self-love).

1) Clean out your emotional closet. Just like you have to clean your house and closet at least once a year to get rid of the clutter and junk that you have, you have to do the same for your emotions. In order to allow feelings of love for yourself in, you have to let all the negatively and hatred out. Let go all of your emotional baggage. It is only holding you back. There was some truth to Ms. Erykah’s song “Bag Lady”-

I guess nobody ever told you, all you must hold on to is you, is you, is you…

2) Look in the mirror. Yes, I mean literally go stand in front of a mirror and look at yourself. If you are so used to staring at yourself and saying negative things about yourself like, “I can’t do anything with this mess I call hair” or “Just look at this body, who would want this?” Start turning those statements into something positive. Love your hair. Love your body (whether you are a size 2 or 22). If there are changes you want to make to yourself, make them only because YOU want to not because the media or others around you have told you that you would be prettier or look better if you change certain things.

3) Believe in yourself. I can sit here all day and tell you I am the best thing since sliced bread but if I don’t believe it, I can’t expect anyone else to believe it. Start believing the positive statements you say about yourself in the mirror. You have to be the best salesman of yourself. Just think about this- Alex Haley was rejected numerous times before Roots was published. It went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and became a well watched television series. Know what do you think would have happened if he didn’t believe in himself and the product he was selling?

4) Do the “write” thing. One year, I had a young girl in one of my classes that was dealing with her self- image. So I decided to give her an assignment I saw in Essence. I told the entire class to write down all the things that are great about them. The article I read suggested you write 100 things but I didn’t want to limit my students. I also did the assignment and I came up with 122 things about how amazing I am (wait amazing-123.) So the next day, they had to take to take their list and….

5) Write a “love” letter. I didn’t call it a love letter but that that’s what it was. They had had to write a letter to themselves using what words and statements from their list describing how wonderful they were. I told them that whenever they felt down or low about themselves, pull out the list or the letter and read it.

So I am encouraging you if you are ever feeling low about yourself, write yourself a love letter.

Did you get my card?

(Did it make you smile?)

(yeah)

Did you read my love letter?
(Did it lift you up?)

(yeah)
Did it touch your heart? – R. Kelly

 

Dea Win is the owner of Pretty Girls Rock Dresses ™

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Category : Blog