7.16.24 // Me Again

There have been times in my life when I didn't feel like me...
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Most recently, a year and a half ago, I felt like a shell of a person. The light never reached my eyes, and my heart ached like it had forgotten how to beat.
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The activities I loved had lost their luster, and even though I physically looked "my best" according to societal beauty standards, my body didn't feel like my own.  
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It was a slow process to come back to me and to feel like myself, and if I'm completely honest, there are still days when I feel the pull back into uncertainty and like I'm still a bit lost in the dark.
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Finding the light out of the dark is both extremely easy and impressively hard. I wish I could say it's as simple as turning your face to the sun, but a lot of the time, it's not just standing in the sun. It's letting yourself FEEL the sun, FEEL your light, FEEL who you are in the quiet moments. It's learning how to trust yourself again, to listen to your knowing, and shamelessly, boldly, audaciously, fearlessly letting yourself be exactly who you are.
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Which, again, sounds simple in theory, but it takes practice, little steps, and little trusting acts to know yourself, celebrate yourself, and fall back in love with the true north of you.