Self love, self acceptance, whatever you want to call it… it takes work. For so long, we have trained the negative-thinking part of our brain and our soul to point out every flaw. It takes time and energy to train that OUT of ourselves.

Just thinking about my specific insecurities, I spent YEARS straightening my naturally curly hair and caking on thick, dramatic makeup thinking that would make me like myself more. I thought it was the cure.

But the reality is that, those things were simply making it easier for me to hide. They didn’t help me love myself more. They didn’t help me express myself more authentically. In fact, they did the opposite.

I’ve learned that the harder I try to cover up my insecurities, the more intense those insecurities become.

Now, instead of focusing on trying to hide or improve my insecurities, I instead focus on emphasizing what I’m most confident about. And that’s been very helpful.