P.S. I Love Me

Life is tough. No matter who you are, what your capabilities are, how you are peceived, we all struggle from time to time. Living with chronic illness or disability can make it even tougher. Your self esteem, confidence and the way you view yourself can take a massive blow. We can lose our respect towards our bodies and our inner being. It can be easy to think that if our bodies aren’t going to do right by us then why should we do right by them?

I have been struggling lately with how I see my body. I hate that I can’t exercise to make it look good or to make it strong and fit. I look at my wobbly arms or my not-so-flat stomach and cringe. I feel the exhaustion, nausea, pain and lightheadedness after a short catch up with friends and am disheartened. So I get angry at my body and a slight feeling of loathing towards it has crept in. I have also been letting my body’s faults affect my self esteem and happiness. I have been on holiday from uni for the past 2 1/2 months and have fallen into the downward spiral of Netflix binging and (necessary) naps. This has led to me feeling a bit useless, just dragging along with no purpose. I compare myself to other people and their active and svelte bodies, gorgeous children, interesting jobs, fantastic travel stories and five year plans. 

Valentine’s Day hasn’t always been the largely commercial absurdity that it has become today. Did you know that it originated as a Western Christian day of feasting to honour saints named Valentinus? It is celebrated in various ways and for many cultural, religious and commercial reasons around the world. It can be a day to show love, a day of romance, a day to honour saints and martyrs, and a day to welcome spring and good health. It has even been said that it is the day the birds propose to each other or marry (I think this is my favourite!). There are so many different meanings associated with Valentine’s Day. So I want us to also associate self-love with it too.

unique individual who is able to do something in a way that no one else will ever do. We all put our own stamp on everything that we do.

Say to yourself, “I love you.”