The words are simple enough, but the meaning is very regularly lost.
Maybe not lost, but dismissed. Tossed aside. Neglected. I think we are all familiar with these words, but if you are anything like me, you see them for a brief moment before snatching them off their shiny, fluffy cloud, crumpling them and shoving them under a rock while looking around to see if anyone is watching.
I like to play ignorant of the fact that I am enough because accepting that fact is HARD. It is easier to internalize the criticisms, compare out, and constantly try to jump to a ledge that is always just a little out of reach. How does that make sense? I'll just pretend I didn't know about it and then no one can challenge the fact that I haven't been accepting it.
I started my blog after coming out on the other side of addiction, after controlling food in an a desperate reach for sanity, and after using exercise to mold myself into a vision of "enough" that I constantly shifted so that I could never achieve it. It has and always will be an inside job and I wanted to try and save others the pain of what I had gone through in coming to what seemed like such a simple revelation.
There are days when I get it and days when I don't. I have to keep writing my blog because on the days that I don't, I look to you to help me remember and hopefully on the days that I do, you may come looking for the same thing.
Writing about things is a wonderful way for me to process them. A way for me to think out loud. That being said, when I write posts like these they are often when I am in the middle or just on the cusp of internalizing an important message or principle. I'd rather write about them now than when I have it all "figured out" because I think writing in the middle is more authentic. Granted, I may seem more scattered, but aren't we all?
SO, coupled with the information I know to be inherently true and the fact that we are often far more compassionate with others than we are with ourselves, I have a few things to say to you. Please listen.
1. There is no perfection. Anyone who believes there is or insists that you should attain that status is not worth your time. You are enough.
2. There is no goal that you could ever achieve that will convince you that you are enough. If you don't already believe it before you get there, you still won't once you do.
3. You are an incredible person. I don't even know you, but I can tell you without a doubt that there is something in you that sets you apart from everyone else. You need to find that thing and you need to embrace it. Nurture it.
4. I know that other people's opinions, external comparisons, and your own negative self-talk may have brought you to a place where you question your self-worth. Some days are worse than others, but realize that on every day you are enough.
5. As long as you know you are enough, no one can ever tell you that you're not.
I have spent a lot of time trying to be what I thought others and the world wanted me to be. It has been one of the most tiring existences. I'm not sure where I got my concept of what the world wanted me to be, because when I actually realized what that was, it had nothing to do with what my brain told me.
The more that I speak from the heart and take the time to nurture the things that make me unique, the more receptive I find the world to be. Being myself requires far less work and because of that I am able to invest more time in developing who I am. Finding a voice. Changing the world.
The world wants you to be exactly who you are because nothing will happen if you aren't. You are enough and your enough is what changes the world.
This post originally appeared here on Erin's Inside Job.
If you're struggling with an eating disorder, call the National Eating Disorder Association hotline at 1-800-931-2237.
Need help with substance abuse or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.