10 Things to Remember When You Don't Like Your Outward Appearance

On those days when you’re exhausted and you look in the mirror and hate what you see, or see a bad picture, or just don’t have the mental capacity to like your outward appearance very much, here are 10 things to remind yourself.

1. Your body is more than something to admire or desire but rather is a vessel to carry you through all of the experiences in life that bring you joy.

2. Your body has helped you to survive everything that you’ve encountered thus far.

3. Your feet have carried you miles upon miles to explore new places, carry new weight, dance with new partners and give everyone a giggle when you take your shoes off and they stink up the room.

4. The stomach that you hate so much has housed the food that has been converted to energy so that you can do the things you like doing. Incredible. It's felt the butterflies on a roller coaster or those with the first few meetings with a new lover. It's ached from all of the laughing you've done in the company of people you love.

5. Your brain has helped you to create new ideas, hold onto memories, and feel and process through the complex emotions that are associated with this human experience that we are living. It's got an imagination that helped you play house or build forts or imagine the woods outside are Terabithia.

6. Your hands have held lovers, wiped tears from sad eyes, created and crafted and built, and expressed the feelings that you just couldn’t get out in words.

7. Your eyes (even if they aren’t seeing your body clearly right now) have allowed you to take in the beauty of your surroundings—people, places, and things all included.

8. Your arms have carried countless loads of groceries, given hugs to people who needed them the most, and given you a means to pick things up that a T-Rex probably couldn’t.

9. Your nose has allowed you to smell everything good and bad which can become associated with different memories. The pizza smell in the elementary school cafeteria, the perfume or cologne or deodorant of your favorite people, the musty gym smell that is weirdly your safest place and 2nd home, the spices at Christmas time, the smell of a fresh rain.

10. Your legs (whether you’re thinking they’re too big or too small) have walked you to all of the destinations you’ve been thus far and carried the weight of the entire world at times. They’ve taken beatings over and over, you’ve hit your shins on scooters and skinned your knees on skateboards, and yet, they still keep on carrying you. They've been a lap for little ones to sit on and been a tunnel for kids or obnoxious pets to dart through.

YOU are SO MUCH MORE than just something to look at.