Monday, March 26, 2012



I've seen a theme running through the WLS community, and I'm sure you've seen or experienced it yourself. That theme is lack of self-esteem. Most of us who have struggled with our weight for years have at one time or another felt that we weren't worth being loved. We've felt that we were worth less than others. We felt that we needed the love and approval of others to make us whole, to make us valuable.

But I'm here to tell you ALL....we are all valuable!!! We are all lovable!! We are all beautiful!!!! It took me 38 years to come to the point in my life where I truly and completely believed I was beautiful, lovable, valuable!! There were times when I almost believed it, or I believed it until someone said or did something to make me doubt it. But now I know better! I can't tell you what it was that changed it. I think it was a gradual progression.

I've taken many steps over the years to deal with much of the abuse and trauma that I suffered as a child. I've been to counseling, read more books than I can count, talked to people until they are tired of hearing about it. One of the things I learned during this progression was that my mind had been wallpapered with lies all my life...and I'd come to believe them.



You might be asking what in the world that means. I want you to picture your mind as a room with 4 walls. Now imagine that each time a negative word was spoken to or about you a strip of wallpaper with those words written on it was pasted on one of those walls. Imagine that each time someone treated you negatively it was plastered on another wall. And not just other people's words, but yours too. Every negative thing that you or anyone else ever said about you was plastered on the walls of your mind. And those words, thoughts, and events became your "truth". They became what you believed about yourself...even if they weren't true.



So, how do we overcome this? We start ripping down those layers of lies that paper the walls of our minds. And we open the door of our mind and throw them out. Then we replace them with the truth. We begin to wallpaper them with all the positives about ourselves. We begin to makeover our mind by reminding ourselves daily how valuable, how lovable, how wonderful we are. Make a list of all the good things about you...nothing is too trivial to recognize. Read that list over and over and trust it...believe it. Eventually the walls of your mind will be covered in the most beautiful paper ever....your real truth!!!

7 comments:

LuLu Kellogg said...

Beautifully written Michelle!!

Love,
LuLu~*xoxo

Michelle Jackson said...

Thank you, Lulu!! xoxo

tz said...

I love that song. I agree that there are many of us with self-esteem issues, and then being overweight perpetuates it. I like your point about wallpapering with the truth.

fatgirlchangingherworld said...

Very well said! I love your illustration of this via the wallpaper!! You ARE beautiful and I am SO glad that you see it too!

Holly from 300 Pounds Down said...

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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