What 5 things would you tell yourself? (Rewind)

I’m doing a sort of double rewind for this weeks question. About 3 years ago I asked What 5 things would you tell yourself? to help face some stuff from my past. I think as we age we need to remind ourselves where we come from and the experiences we had. It helps us figure out who we are and gives us the ability to look at the present and future differently.

This post isn’t about go back and changing anything. It’s about celebrating what we’ve learned about ourselves and others over the course of our lifetime. Whether we are 25 or 45 our experiences are valuable and they shape who we are today.

Here’s my original post from April 22, 2008 where I rewind to 1991.. NO LAUGHING! ;)

I can’t take credit for this question as I know there was a meme going around awhile back asking bloggers to write a letter to their younger selves. Like, if you went back in time what would say to the high school version of you? I thought it was an interesting activity but I didn’t have time to participate then, so I’m stealing the idea for this weeks question and changing it up a bit. Instead of a letter, I want us to think about 5 specific things we would tell ourselves if we could go back in time.

They don’t all have to be weight related but I think we’ll discover even the non-weight issues are relevant to self-esteem, confidence, body image and a host of other things that may manufacture themselves as “weight issues”.

So travel back in time with me.

The year is 1991 (HOLY CRAP) I was 15, wearing my cuffed jeans, hot pink BUM wind breaker, listening to Def Leppard and Boyz II Men. Don’t believe me? Look at this… (Sorry Jen – Don’t Kill me :~P)

The sad thing is, I was already “dieting”, not happy with my body and envious of my skinny friends. Notice I was hiding myself in the picture, that’s a pretty common theme in my old photos starting at about age 12.

What do I tell myself?

Stop being so preoccupied with your body. You are young, fit, active and beautiful (that was really hard for me to type) Love who YOU are and stop comparing yourself to others, it’s not worth it, life is too short. Wear clothes that FIT YOU!! I know you don’t believe it but baggy is not better and it makes you look much bigger then you are. Stick to the salads at McDonald’s! (I worked at MickeyD’s for 5 years and ate WAY to many quarter pounders on my lunch breaks) HAVE FUN! Life is too short to miss out on things because you are worried what you look like. Throw that bathing suit on, get in the ocean and SWIM! Enjoy it now before you are running after a 2 year old on the beach Don’t wait until your junior year of college to take a computer class. Get into it early, you have a knack and one day you’ll make a career out of making web sites. Oh! you don’t know what a web site is, don’t worry you will soon enough. :~)

Your turn. :~)

I originally got a little humorous on that last one so I’ll add another.

Your body is capable of AMAZING things. One day you will have children and realize this. In the mean time treat it and yourself with kindness. Embrace who you are and don’t be ashamed of ANYTHING. Confidence is a hard thing to master. Start now.

ok, NOW it’s your turn. I’m curious what your 5 things are.

Click here to see the comments on the original post as well. Lots of great stuff!

View the original article here