"In the stillness I heard a voice that told me everything was the way it was supposed to be. In the stillness I heard a voice that reminded me I was whole. In the stillness I heard that same voice that I recognized was my own."
-m.b.victoria

My greatest hope for you is that you one day find the strength to love yourself as wholly as you love your friends, your phone and the countless other people/objects that cross your path in a single day.

That you might realize the importance of self-care will never result from a vacation out of your daily life, but in the few minutes a day you choose to do whatever it is that makes your heart happy. To dance in your underwear when no one is watching, to meditate, run, witness something beautiful or simply be.

But most importantly, that you begin to recognize the importance of self-advocacy and mustering the confidence to love the body that you are in.

This world is fast. Cars and pedestrians race by, always leaving and always going, without a true sense of awareness of themselves or the world around them. Never actually feeling the water running down our backs when we shower because we are already visualizing whatever it is we need to accomplish that day.

And so we live our lives either in rewind or fast forward

Until our head hits the pillow and our alarm alerts us to start it all over again.

This week I challenge you to find five minutes in your hectic day and turn the music off. Close your phone screens, books, computers, etc. and simply be. Notice the cold air filling your lungs, reminding you that you are alive. Feel the warm air exit your body as you breathe life into others.

It might surprise you how incredibly hard this is to do, but how much better you will feel if you continue to do so every day. Eventually finding 10 minutes instead of 5, then 15 and so on.

We live our lives believing that silence is something to fear

As if we could be doing something more productive. As if the monsters in our closets are out to get us, with 401ks looming over our shaking heads...

It is in the silence that you will find peace. The simple awareness helping you feel most confident, most alive. And for the first time in months, you might even find yourself proud of who you are and what you have overcome because very few people can shoulder what you carry every day.

I have already spent far too much of my life seeking love and respect from the wrong people. People who meant exceptionally well. People who are some of my closest friends or random acquaintances.

But the only person capable of loving us in the way that we need will always be the one staring back at you in the mirror.

So love her/him. Embrace the stillness and silence that deafens all fears and insecurities in your mind, and listen to the quiet roar of the advocate you always needed but never knew you had. Because s/he isn't going anywhere anytime soon.