Being comfortable in my own skin took years of inner work. Yes, working from the inside out to develop a comfort level with myself and just being me. Life can take over at times and knock you down, sideways, front ways, and in strange directions. You never know what you will come up against in addition to every day inner struggles.
What are the inner struggles I am speaking of? Self-esteem and Self-confidence. I used to ask myself all the time why I didn't feel I was good enough or strong enough to follow my dreams and I often wondered what was stopping me. It wasn't until later in life I realized it was me.
I am a pretty upbeat person and I preach this stuff of being happy, having self-esteem and being confident and I surely was not practicing this at all. I used it to cover up my own pain and struggles of not feeling good enough or fitting in. Then one day, it came to me and I had a flash back to my childhood about how I was teased for being the tall girl at school. I would think to myself: "How dare they tease me for being tall!" I found myself trying to walk and talk small and this did nothing for me then and later in life. I was watering myself down based on the voices I heard in my head from being teased since I was tall.
Even as I got older, low self-esteem and not being confident played a part in some decisions I would make or not make. I did not take chances and was resistant to change since I didn't want to be the one to rock the boat for fear of being teased. Sometimes I could still hear the kids and the whispers and thought: "There has got be more to life than this." So what did I do? I pressed on and kept going; kept pursuing my dreams and now here I am in a comfortable space where I feel free to express myself while growing my self-esteem and self-confidence.
When you recognize the fact that you need to do the inner work, great things come to you. I have always known I wanted to be writer and publish a book to help myself and others. It took many years to get here and the development of myself came in stages and I am still working on myself every day. Connecting with other writers, bloggers, authors, and like-minded people who support me each day has helped so much. This is when things really began to change and I felt differently inside and the confidence began to radiate.
Earlier this year while searching for writing topics, I wanted to connect with other bloggers to get some ideas on how to build self-esteem and self-confidence. I came across a website called The Tall Society. I thought wow, let me check this out so I did. This was just what I needed! Connecting with other tall women from all walks of life and the first chance I could, I attended a brunch event in Washington, DC. You can read more about it here in my A Tall Girl's Dream blog post. What did this do for me? It helped me resolve my feelings of being too tall or too this or that and not having the faith to believe in myself and work on my self-esteem and self-confidence. And of course, I attended another Tall Society event last month in New York where I connected with so many women just like me.
Being comfortable in my own skin to me means doing what you love, following your dreams, and putting out there to the world that you've got this and can do anything you put your mind and heart to. As for me, I am going for it! My second book, A Life With A View: Inspiring Creative Passion is due out this year and I am doing a book cover reveal on Sunday, August 20, 2017. Head on over to the Facebook page for more details and you can also sign up here for exclusive emails and special offers and giveaways from A Life With A View.
Now it is your turn. Are you comfortable in your own skin? What have you done or what do you need to do to get there? Please leave a comment or question below. I'd love to hear from you!
