What do you think when I mention the term “Self-harm”? Do you think of teenage girls with zero self esteem cutting themselves? The more I learn about people, the more I think that awkward teen never fully leaves us, not really. And if we aren’t careful to love ourselves and build our own self-esteem we may just end up self-harming in so many more subtle, but socially acceptable ways…
What could possibly be socially acceptable about self-harm? Excellent question, to which I might reply: when was the last time you ate McDonalds? Or any chemical-laden toxic shit-storm of a meal? I mean, the Aussie cricket team is sponsored by KFC ffs. Sporting heros indeed.
I mean no disrespect of teenage girls who are struggling, hurting deeply, and feeling very, very alone. Trust me, I have been where you are too. But I think that we all need to take a good look at how well we love and nurture ourselves at any age. How much of her is left in YOU, really?
We all know we have one human body (this lifetime anyway), and yet we treat it so…carelessly. Do you really love and honour this physical form you were given? So that it might be a comfortable home for you for the next 50…80 years?
Well, do you?
Where did this thought come from? Well my daughter was asking me about that experiment that was done on the McDonalds burger someone kept on their shelf for 14 years (seriously who does that?!) – and it remained completely unchanged. How? Why? When she asked me I had to really think about it. I mean, it’s obviously not the best quality food, but …yeah, why?
I came to this conclusion – they would grown the grains and meat with so many pesticides and chemicals that all microflora is killed. Then it’s processed and treated with enough preservatives and other chemicals that it won’t grow anything for another 20 years…or thereabouts. About the only thing that would last like that is plastic, so it has to have the nutritional qualities of something akin to plastic. I may be right, I may be wrong, but I can’t be exaggerating too much surely?
And we eat this stuff. We eat it, we take our 1 year olds for a happy meal. We are killing ourselves and for what? Maybe we just don’t feel worth anything, or maybe we just haven’t thought about it that hard? I dunno.
And if you don’t eat Maccas – hey, congrats. What do you do to sabotage yourself? I’m pretty sure there’ll still be something. Do you love perfume? (toxic) Overspend on your credit card (soul-destroying) …there are so many ways available to us and it’s just too darn hard to check all the ingredients on every box right? Hey I agree, I’m totally with you. But you know what? Noone else is going to do it for you. Noone else is going to love you the way you deserve to be loved if you don’t think you’re worth it.
I mean it. It hurts maybe, but it’s true. If you are yet to find purpose in your life then I will offer you an interim one: learn to love yourself. Only in this can you then share true love, forgiveness, compassion with anyone else. Only then can you find who you really are and why you are really here.
What does that even look like?
It looks like connecting with your inner self and making sure they are ok, that they feel heard. You need to love and honour YOU, how can you do that if you don’t go find him/her within and check what he/she really wants? Give them a hug, tell them you love them. Seriously, call me a fruitloop, but then go tell them you love them.
It looks like nurturing and nourishing yourself. Nourishing. Doesn’t it sound amazing? You are a divine being in a human body – nourish that amazing soul in human form. YOU. ARE. WORTHY.