The Love Yourself Challenge

I am an architecture student, which means I spend countless hours every day either sitting at a drafting table or in front of a laptop. (It doesn’t help that I spend some of my free time in front of my laptop on social media too.) You can probably guess how my posture is like, so poor it would be under the line of poverty.

Proper posture should be like the following:

Some negative effects of poor posture include:

Worsens Depression and Stress

Causes Digestive Issues

Poor Breathing

Back, Shoulder and Neck Pain

Tension Headaches

My original title for this day was “Exercise every morning”. This was my first act on my ongoing list. But on January 9, I became more specific and changed it to “Exercise abs everyday”

The beauty of this challenge is that you can make it fit you, personalize it for your needs. Everyone can say to “exercise daily” or for “one hour every other day”. But with this you can be more specific to your need.

You see, I am a very lazy person. I pretty much eat then sleep which is why I have a stomach that makes me look 6 months pregnant. It’s really only my stomach that is fat though, not the rest of my body. So I am targeting that weakness.

For now, I am doing  9 exercises every day that focuses only on my stomach area. There’s a lot of videos on YouTube that can help guide you through whatever part of the body you need to focus on.

Allow yourself to sweat. Allow your muscles to hurt. Remember: no pain, no gain. If it ain’t hurting, it ain’t working. If you find it hard to finish a workout remember your reason behind it. My reason is so I can wear whatever I want and still be fully comfortable in my body (not have my stomach bulging out from under my clothes). I always imagine myself in a cute outfit.

The goal of the challenge is to do one act of self-love everyday. You can do this is two ways:

1. Good for one day. These are acts you can do that just last one day. Examples of this is wearing a skirt for no reason. Or giving your room/work place a good clean. These you can repeat randomly throughout the year, but  you don’t have to do these things daily.

2. Ongoing list. These acts is something that you will have to carry throughout the year. Write them down on a list (on your cellphone or post notes on your wall, whatever works) to remind yourself to stick with them. Examples of this are working out, staying hydrated, and sitting with straighter posture.

Reminders:

1. Nothing is too minor. You don’t have to do something spectacular every single day of the year like take that hike that you always wanted to go on. You can love yourself by allowing yourself to smile and consciously doing so on a bad day.

2. Give and Take. Even you are in a give and take relationship with yourself. What I mean by this is that the goal of this challenge isn’t to spoil yourself. It is also challenging you to practice self-control. Some days you should allow yourself to treat yourself but other day you have to hold back because you’re saving for something better. Some day you have to give yourself a well deserved rest, while other days you have to push yourself to work even though you feel like crap.

3. It’s okay to miss a day. This is almost inevitable when it comes to daily challenges. We all have busy lives that we make forget to consciously practice self-love or forget to do all of that on our ongoing list. But there’s already a solution for it. Practice self-love on the spot by not beating yourself up and promise yourself you won’t miss the next day and stay committed to that promise.

Hey there, I’m Irene, but you can also call me Reeny.

I started this blog on January 10, 2017. I’m a female and 20 years old. I am currently a graduating college student for the course BS Architecture. I was a salutatorian when I graduated high school. I’m a student leader. I am a beauty queen with 3 titles. And I am formerly a scholar in my university.

I could name all my accomplishments, but I’m just your average girl. And I am a writer. I decided to start this blog because there must be someone out there like me. Despite all of my achievements, I’m still someone that forgets to take care of myself. I tend to get so busy with things I do for other people I forget to do things for myself.

So I thought of this challenge as my new year’s resolution for 2017. Simply put, it is a challenge where I push myself to do one act of self-love each day. I write to encourage others to do the same, not that you have to do exactly what I do, I just write to give you ideas.