Читать книгу Dear Woman - Michael E. Reid - Страница 24

I cannot stress enough the importance of self-love. Once you find it, it will truly be your best friend. It’s the key to living a positive life. It’s about acceptance, it’s about honesty, and it’s about being content. It’s about loving who you see in the mirror, whether it’s 6 a.m. on a Tuesday in your bathroom or 10 p.m. in the mirror of your car on a Saturday night. They are the same woman.

Many women get too caught up in what society thinks is beautiful. It’s ok to see beauty in others and appreciate it, but what you should never do is see the beauty in someone else and let it make you feel uncomfortable about you.

“Everybody wants to be the girl in the magazine, but the girl in the magazine isn’t even the girl in the magazine.”

When you don’t have that self-love, you go looking for it. You start second-guessing yourself when it comes to your beauty. You’ll start wondering how you can make yourself beautiful. Be careful.

Ask yourself, “How far am I willing to go?” There is a difference between playing with makeup and wanting a new face, or between wanting to lose a few pounds and not eating today because the way someone else looked yesterday makes you want to look like her tomorrow. Instead, give credit where credit is due, including to yourself. You are a model, too. It’s just that the magazine you should be on the cover of hasn’t gone to print yet. They haven’t written the song yet for the music video you’re supposed to star in. So, should that stop you? Absolutely not, not when the whole world is your runway. There isn’t a height, weight, skin tone, hairstyle, or “look” that’s trending. You know what’s really in and never going out of style? You. The sooner you realize it, the sooner you’ll crack a smile when you see those people who try too hard to be someone else —the people who spend hours getting ready to be seen for minutes. Don’t let that be you. Life is lived by the second. Don’t waste it trying to get ready for the world. Wake up, look in the mirror, and ask yourself, “Is the world ready for me?” Love the skin you’re in—if not, you’re going to wake up one day and not even recognize yourself.