Britt Maggs

Self-Love Habits

You Are Not Only Your Appearance

by // 1 Comment

“Beauty without kindness and bravery is just a pretty empty shell, my dear. And you can find plenty of those on the beach. People use them to decorate their rooms. So I hope you aspire to be so much more than just beautiful. I hope you aspire to be so much more than a pretty little thing that decorates the room you walk into.”

– Nikita Gill, Excerpt From “Life Lessons From The Not So Wicked Witch To Dorothy”

Your body. They are always commenting on your body. Even when they’re trying to be positive it’s always about your body.

Maybe because it’s what they can see and touch feels easier to label then all the things inside.

I hope you know that you are not your eyelashes or your waistline. You are not your weight or your skin or your hair. Your outsides are the smallest part of who you are.

You are all your favorite albums and the way you sing loudest on the low notes. You are all the selfies you’ve taken and your favorite food. You are all those night drives and crazy summer days. The heartbreaks and the belly laughs and the running as fast as you can downhill. You are the games you played on your Gameboy, your favorite pokemon and the posters you had in your room. You are your favorite color. You are all the movies you quote. You are the choices you made, both good and bad and reckless and hilarious. You are that time you went and picked up your friend at 2a.m. even though they ignored your advice. You are all the plants you own. Your first dog. That time with the windows rolled down, blasting the music louder than legal and screaming it out into the night. You are your favorite place to think whether that’s the mountains or the ocean or that park bench where no one ever sits but you.

We have plenty of women who know how to do their eyebrows. We need women who know how to stand up and do hard things. The hard things for themselves and each other and their communities.

And sometimes it feels easier to outline our lips then to ask ourselves if we are really happy.

Anyone can learn how to style their hair like you but no one can learn to BE YOU.

No one has lived your exact life and no one has your exact mixture of love and magic.

There are so many tiny things that have made you who you are.
You are so much more than anything they can see.

It is okay for us to take pride in ourselves and to feel like we look good. Just remember that our bodies are all slowly falling apart. So what will we fill the years ahead with that will have an impact, that will last?

You were made to be beautiful, not just to look perfect.

Share

Love the Parts of Yourself No One Claps For

by // Leave a Comment

Dear Busy Boss Queen,

I see you. Constantly striving and competing for your spot in this world. Your life is a collage of late nights, errands, receipts, driving, phone calls, empty coffee cups, and an even emptier heart.

It is easy to get addicted to approval, to performing. You are so focused on cutting out toxic relationships but sometimes the most toxic woman in your life is the one you’re pretending to be. The one you feel you SHOULD be. The woman who never breaks down and is always the “Yes” woman. The one who will work overtime and complete the project perfectly. The one who isn’t afraid and doesn’t have limits and isn’t sensitive or high maintenance. Who never gets lonely. Who is always “fine”.

You have placed all your value in high performance and in your accomplishments. But you darling, are so much more than what you bring you to the table. The parts of you that are valuable are not just the parts that are productive. Your worth does not solely lie in the qualities that help you accomplish more than everyone else.

You are organized, passionate, driven, self-motivated, a quick learner, a good listener, a leader. You are a lot of things and these things are good but they are not all of you and they don’t define your worth.

You are worthy, just by BEING you.

I think it’s important to acknowledge and love the parts of your heart that you may have forgotten, the parts that no one claps for. There is so much beauty in you that serves no real purpose but just IS. The way you like smelling coffee even though you hate drinking it. That raised eyebrow you get when you know you’re right and people are being dumb. How you go out of your away to crunch through piles of leaves and drive through puddles on the side of the road just to feel that splash. How you eat tacos from the top down instead of sideways. Your love for pumpkin flavor and overalls.

Your love affair with rain and bookstores will never get you a promotion. No one will tell you “good job” for your genius discovery of french fries and ice cream but all of these things are still beautiful parts of you. Please don’t forget that you are so beautiful in a million weird and quirky ways. Ways that won’t make money. Ways that make you human and imperfect. Ways that make you distinctly you and you are loved for them.

Share

You Were Made for More Than Just Counting Calories

by // Leave a Comment

“Losing weight is not your life’s work and counting calories is not the call of your soul.” – Lisa Turner ‘Losing Weight: What’s the Point?‘

I see you, girl. I see you staring and clawing at the fat on your body and wishing you were different. Wishing you were HER. Wishing he would notice you. Just wishing with all your heart that you could feel beautiful for once. That maybe if you took up less space you’d be less invisible and more loved.

I have been there and am still often there and so I am not going to sit here and tell you not to lose weight. I am not going to tell you not to strive for health and feeling better. What I want to quietly remind you of is that while it can be good to focus on health, losing weight is not your life’s work. Gaining a supermodel physique is not your one purpose in life and tracking your food and working out is not the calling of your soul.

I will not sit here and tell you that our bodies don’t matter because they do. They are the shell and place our souls rest as we wander around this world. But there are so many things that matter MORE. Like sleep and laughter and experiencing the waves on your feet and the sun on your skin, whether you have a “beach body” or not. The beach will just have to take whatever body you give it. Ten years from now the things you remember will not be the bad hair day you had yesterday or how your tummy hang over your jeans, it will be the conversations with family around the dinner table, dancing crazy silly with your friends at the wedding, playing tag with your kids, adventures with your boyfriend, and the way you somehow feel beautiful walking barefoot in the grass in a skirt with your hair down and the sun shining.

Losing weight may be a priority in your life right now and that is okay. Learning to love yourself just as you are may be your priority and that is a brave and beautiful thing to pursue. Wherever you may be on your journey, as you become healthy and grow in loving yourself, don’t forget that at the end of the day, there are far more important things in this world than how many calories you ate today.

Share

Recent Blog Posts