Today, a Facebook memory popped up from New Year’s Eve 2014 that said:
Imagine how your life would feel if the greatest change you made this year was to love yourself more. This has been one of the most valuable shifts in my own life, and part of this process is #justsaynotonumbers.
Which numbers, you ask?
The ones on a scale, the calendar, our bank account, our age and, you know, the numbers that tend to elicit a reaction of,
Oh, wow, that’s so great!
or,
Oh no, I’m old, fat, broke, fill-in-the-blank…
And our energy drops…
Now I’m not suggesting that we stop moving our bodies, eating real food, or that we grow broke and irresponsible.
What I am suggesting is we stop giving those numbers power over us.
10 years ago I threw out my scale.
Why? Because it told me that I had lost 13 pounds since the day prior.
Remembering my first response, Wow, I haven’t seen that number in a long time. That’s amazing. I could feel the rush of energy as I collected 3 more points on the road to I am (almost) enough.
Then I remembered all the times in my life that I had judged myself because of some number on a scale.
Being skinny enough was one of the ways we became worthy/lovable in my family.
God bless my mother, who at 82 still yearns to lose five pounds, no matter her size.
I don’t share that out of judgment, but out of compassion.
Maybe it’s time to stop this self punishing silliness.
Because allowing our happiness to be determined based on what some device or document says;
a birth certificate,
a bank statement,
a credit card bill,
a marriage (or divorce) certificate
a scale,
the number of followers on Instagram, all of which leads to a slippery slope of self-criticism and more unloving behavior.
And what we really want isn’t the number, it’s how we think we’ll feel when we get to the number.
10 years ago, when I stepped on that scale, I was feeling really light and free in my body, even though I knew I hadn’t actually lost 13 pounds in 24 hours.
We want the money because of what we think it will do for us, and how that doing/buying/acquiring will make us feel, when the reality is we get to feel however we want to feel, right now.
So let’s #justsaynotonumbers and go back to what feels like love.
Because love is not only what the world needs more of, it’s the thing that when applied consistently, allows all of those numbers to fall into place.
Love + Magic,
Amber