Learning To Embrace ME!

One of the biggest issues that we deal with as women is learning to love ourselves. As children, most of us learned that longer hair, slimmer figures and lighter skin is the epitome of "beauty". As an African American teenager, I often dealt with the criticism of having a dark complexion.  People (including close family members) used it as an insult against me. Then as I got older, I would often be tagged as "the cute dark skinned" girl.....as if dark skinned girls can't be cute. I could go on and on about the "dark skin" issue within the African American culture, but I'd rather not, I'd be here all day.

My point here is that as women, we must learn to love and embrace every part of our being. We are all beautiful, yet unique. There are no standards of beauty for beauty comes in different sizes, shapes and complexions. This is also what we must teach our young daughters.  Let's not based our worth and love of self on what is depicted as beautiful by the media. I know it's easy to say, but really, we must begin to really love who we are. Let's start today by naming five things that we love or will learn to love about ourselves. Not only things about our body, but who we are as a whole. Okay, here are five things that I love about me:

1. My dark complexion
2. The fullness of my lips
3. The shape of my legs
4. My giving spirit
5. My ability to learn and share what I've learned

Okay, so it took me a while to embrace the first two (dark skin and big lips), but I can honestly say that I learned to love them! They make me who I am!

Now, share five things that you've learned or is learning to love about YOU!! You never know, you may inspire someone today! :0)