Your Thoughts Become Your Words, Your Words Become Your Actions

If we begin to teach girls, at a young age, the value of loving themselves, I truly believe we can significantly lower eating disorder rates. According to About.com and the University of Maryland Medical Center, over the past 40 years, anorexia incidences in young women have tripled (University of Maryland Medical Center, 2004).

As mothers, big sisters, female educators, an all women alike, take a moment to recognize the next time you ridicule a certain part of your body. Are you in front of your daughter? Your niece? Your girlfriend? We have to start to realize that our thoughts become our words, our words become our actions, and our actions greatly affect those who look up to us.

Let’s talk health. I am a true believer in good health. So, as much as I preach about loving yourself, love handles and all, I will also stress proper health and I feel this message should be relayed to any and all young women possible. Fitness is important, not to be able to fit in a size two pair of jeans, but because the longer you live, the more positive impact you can have on this world. So if you do it for nothing else, do it for the fact that the more years you are here, the more you leave behind. I am NOT talking body building, six-pack abs, cut arms and zero percent body fat. I am talking about having a healthy heart, good blood pressure, low cholesterol. I am talking about being able to enjoy the simple and beautiful pleasure in life. Be healthy enough to take a walk around your neighborhood, enough to play with your children in the yard, healthy enough to feel good. FEEL GOOD. These are the simple joys in life and health, no matter how much you shouldn’t obsess about it, should be a priority for you. Staying healthy is one of the strongest ways to show self-love and it is the easiest way to build confidence.

For women, confidence can do a number of important things. Loving yourself first allows you to love others better. In the October issue of REDBOOK magazine there is an amazing story on domestic violence. I will be the first to say that instilling confidence and positive self-image in women can help prevent domestic violence. Confidence could save your life. Allow me to explain. (Please do not interpret this as, any woman in an abusive relationship has low self-confidence) A woman who loves who she is and values her body, her life, and her existence, is not going to allow a man into her life who doesn’t value her body, her life and her existence. It’s as simple as that. If you love yourself first, you aren’t going to stick around with anyone who doesn’t at least match that love; if not love you even more. So teach your daughters to love who they are, what they have offer this world, and what they have the potential to become. In doing this, you are preventing the very thing that leads three U.S. women to be killed by current or former partners every day.

"If you aren't good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you'll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren't even giving to yourself."

-Barbara De Angelis