babe, you are the masterpiece

Confidence, self-love, self-empowerment, acceptance - all of it is an art form.

The journey to creating own the room confidence is truly art. It's feeling inspired and creative and acting from those feelings, and then abandoning the artwork for weeks on end because you can't even fathom looking at it ever again, chastising yourself for even being crazy enough to create this masterpiece or think a silly little idea of yours could ever matter.

Masterpieces are not something that comes together perfectly and beautifully - they are the result of resilience and persistence.

Learning to love myself has been one of the hardest things I have ever done in life, because it meant accepting parts of me that I couldn't change, parts that I hated, things that if the world were to ever know I feel like I would quite literally change my identity and disappear for eternity. (seriously lol - we all have those things right?)

And it's DAILY - every single day loving myself is an intentional choice, and it usually comes from the habit of not liking myself or being super critical.

The biggest changes I've made have been incremental - things that my perfectionist self scoffs at, says they aren't enough, when in reality if I had never done these small things, I wouldn't be where I am.

I've had more change from the imperfect days than the perfect, because it's where I've found consistency. It's the days that maybe I couldn't get my workout in, but I was able to do my skincare and feel good. Or perhaps I didn't commit to any goals, but I was able to have one more gentle and loving thought with myself than the day before.

It's when you don't want to make a healthy meal for yourself, but reminding yourself that you ARE worth the effort and energy, even if you don't "feel" like it.

It's forgiving yourself when things don't go accordingly and remembering that you are so damn powerful, literally nothing matters HOW you do it. Because the point is...you decided on how you wanted life to be long ago. You get to release your own expectations and start to create life in the way it supports you most.

And it starts with you babe. How are you treating yourself? How are you talking to yourself?

What do YOU need to hear the most? Can you tell that to yourself?

Do you need a break? Maybe a break from being you, from the to-dos? Just permission to be human for the day?

There's nothing to fix. I need to say that again - there is nothing to fix. There is nothing wrong with you.

The first step of being the masterpiece that you are, is accepting how you are/be/feel/think now, and give yourself permission to evolve.

Give yourself permission to have fun and enjoy the journey - it almost feels like dating yourself. You don't know what's going to come of it, but you know it's going to be fun. You are going to learn things about yourself, and start to see things you've always held within come to fruition in your outer world.

And as you accept yourself, nurture yourself, and cherish yourself....things start to make sense and fall into place. The self-love and empowerment you are building is coming from within...it's a new foundation for you.

When that foundation comes from within, NO ONE can take that from you.

Because as we remind ourselves of our worth and that we are worthy simply because, we are, then anything challenging that gets to just fall away.

Off-handed comments tend not to linger as much (they probably will still sting - it's only human), but you're able to move past them more quickly.

When you make big decisions, you may still listen to other opinions to help you weight the options, but ultimately you knew the answer as soon as the question was presented because...you trust yourself.

You learn to distinguish your gut from fear and anxiety, to know the TRUTH, your truth.

Things come more easily, because you get better and better at living in your truth.

No one is required to help you do this - no validation, no material things, no one telling you "yes, this is the point, you are good enough."

It's simply deciding to own it, own the fact and know you are the masterpiece.

The piece you feel you've been missing all along is looking right back at you in the mirror each day.

Embody it, and carry on.

xoxo, blake.