Imagine, believe, achieve

Oh my gosh! Is it seriously nearly Christmas? How much will I be eating over the next week? Too much I can guarantee! There will be shortbread biscuits, plum pudding, choc coated almonds, custard, and loads of chocolates! So I might as well just give up on feeling good about myself and my body! What! Are you kidding me? You are not getting away with that!

Last week I set a body and mind loving challenge, today I am following that up. With Christmas time in full swing we may be feeling happy and cheerful and singing Christmas carols, well either that or we are feeling flustered, broke and fed up with bloody Christmas Carols playing in every store after we finally won the fight over the last available car park! Love this time of year or not, it is upon us and it is a time where we tend to over eat and lie on the couch with out top button of our pants undone! It is easy to feel bad about our bank balance and our bodies at this time of year. Now if you live in England or America you may be able to hide under the giant knitted jumper/sweater that Aunty Beryl made you, but if like me you are in Australia, well let’s just say it’s hard to hide anything in bikini season.

We may be busy, but feeling good about ourselves is never something that we should put on the back burner. If we really want to enjoy Christmas we need to feel happy about who we are and believe that we deserve to love ourselves. Christmas is a time of giving, and we deserve to give ourselves a little something too! (And no I’m not talking about that pendant, cute dress, shoes or earnings that we wrapped ourselves and popped under the tree). I am talking about ‘self love and acceptance’. Because let’s be honest, we are not going to think we look great in that new dress if we don’t like the way we look already.

So it is time to get festive and get ready to give yourself that gift of self love. Here is the challenge I set you last week.

• Write a list, be it on your phone, paper, or computer. Write at least one thing you like about your body, if you can write more then do so, but if you can’t that is fine.
• Leave yourself a reminder to read that list once a day, adding to it if you feel you can. If you are not ready to add to it that is OK. 
• Feel free to add a positive regarding achievements, or anything you feel you are good at (i.e.- drawing, reading, gardening, even cleaning).
• By the end of the first week, I want you to look at yourself in the mirror and give yourself one compliment. No matter how strange it feels I want you to do it, and I want you to be proud of yourself for doing it!
• Be kind to yourself, treat yourself to an extra long shower one day, or buy yourself a really good book. Maybe book your nails to be done, or cook a special meal. Whatever it is, just make a conscious effort to acknowledge you deserve to be treated nicely. 
• Be proud of yourself for doing these steps!

 If you haven’t seen this list then I suggest you start here with the list above. But if you have been through these steps then you should be extremely proud of yourself. Taking steps towards feeling good about yourself doesn’t come naturally to all of us, but we can achieve self love and acceptance with perseverance. 

It starts with making a decision to love yourself and acting upon that decision. There is no better time than today to start taking steps towards a happier you and a better life.

Week two. Here is my challenge for you.

• look at the list you started last week, and add to it. I want you to try and list five positive things about yourself. These can range from your physical appearance to talents, or achievements you are proud of. 
• I want you to buy some little sticky notes, or just cut up some small pieces of paper and write down those 5 traits, 1 per piece of paper. I want you to pop them in different places around your home, car or office. Perhaps on your bathroom mirror, or even in your handbag. each time you see the paper I want you to read it and smile.
• After 3 days, add another sticky note with another positive trait. And on day 6 add another one. If you are having trouble coming up with your list, maybe ask a friend or family member to tell you what they like about you, or ask your children. 

• When the week is up I want you to collect your sticky notes and read each one out loud to yourself whilst standing in front of the mirror. Yes this may feel strange, even silly, but do it anyway and then be proud of yourself for loving yourself enough to make this effort! 

Try to always end each day with a positive thought, no matter how bad a day may have been there is always something nice you can say to yourself.

Throughout the Christmas season, especially this coming week don’t be hard on yourself, nourish your body with food, feed your soul with the festivities of the season, give to others less fortunate and be loving towards yourself. So what if you enjoy some Christmas pudding, or have a few too many mince tarts, enjoy them, and enjoy fuelling your body with food and your mind with self respect and positive affirmations. 

I thought I would leave you with some positive affirmations. If you are finding writing your own positive thoughts difficult then write some of these down and read them to yourself each morning, and before you go to bed. Or bookmark this post and check back in once a day.

And most of all

Enjoy the Christmas season

Thanks for joining me, love Mackenzie xx

PS: I’d love to hear how you are going with these challenges, so leave me a message or tweet me @macglanville. Feel free to email me with questions, comments or for advice mac@reflectionsfromme.com with ‘Challenge me” in the subject line.