kindness |

I’ve been adding more meditation time to my life and this has been a wonderful decision. I was deeply encouraged by a dear friend (Thanks Gina!) to pursue this and it has helped me in so many ways. I am feeling less stressed. I am feeling more grounded. My dreams at night are rich and vivid! There are so many good things.

In my work with a coach last year and in my meditation this year, I have come across many tools and phrases that I use to help keep me centered and feeling whole. But in all those tools and phrases, for me one has stood head and shoulders above the rest. I simply tell myself, “Jeanette, you are enough.”

I often need to tell myself this phrase over and over. Because throughout my life, I have often felt I wasn’t enough. I wasn’t tall enough or thin enough or smart enough or rich enough. I wasn’t sexy enough or talented enough or kind enough or a good enough friend, daughter, sister or wife.

And in my life when I have felt the deepest despair, I wonder if I am even under there. Under the awards and the press clippings and the degrees and the friends list and the family ties and the wardrobe and the public smile. Under the niceness and the smile I share even when I feel like crying am I under all that? Is there a me there somewhere?

But through my meditation work, I am starting to understand that I am a joyous sufficiency. I am enough. Not my money or my work or my friends lists or my accomplishments. Not my friends lists or my awards or my photographs or my resume or my portfolio. I am enough. Just me. Whatever I bring, or do, or desire or act upon. I AM just fine. I AM.

I share this because I hear you. I hear you when you are frustrated and sad and feel like you will never live up to what you think the world wants you to be. I hear you when you fail yet again to capture the perfect selfie that will convince you that you have convinced the entire world you are okay. And for those moments, whenever they come up, I want to say something.

Breathe. You are okay. You are enough. You ARE.

Love,

Jeanette DePatie (AKA The Fat Chick)

P.S. Want me to come talk to your group about the importance of understanding “joyous sufficiency”? Email me at jeanette at the fat chick dot com. Learn more here.

I hope you’ll forgive me for being a bit tardy. You see, yesterday, October 14 was National Love Your Body day. It was also the 19th anniversary of my marriage to the absolute best guy on the planet. So it was a day with a whole lot of love in it. And as I contemplated my lucky, love-filled life, I had some thoughts about marriage and loving and loving your body.

I think my husband would be one of the first to say, that learning to love my body proved to be a very important turning point in our marriage. While I hated my body, I was unable to believe that anybody else could love me or my body. Before I learned to love my body, I felt lucky that anybody would even profess to love me. And when my husband told me he loved me and thought I was beautiful, I thought he was lying–either to me or to himself. But as I learned to love my body, I came to accept that my husband was telling the truth–both to himself and to me. And I still count myself lucky. But now I feel that I’m lucky to love and be loved by somebody wonderful and kind and special. I no longer feel like he is with me out of pity or sympathy. I no longer believe he is with me despite my body. I now accept that he loves ALL of me. So of course, I feel very, very blessed.

And as I thought over our years together before we were married as well as the nearly two decades we’ve been married, I thought about the things that make a marriage work. And I thought about how we are in many ways married to our bodies as well. We can’t really leave our bodies (more than temporarily) while we are alive on this earth. And while many of us live in a state of being disconnected from or even divorced from our bodies, we really only get one. So it’s a good idea to learn how to reconnect with and even love the skin we’re in.

So with that in mind, I thought I would have a little marriage ceremony for me and my body. Since I’ve already learned to love my body (most of the time) it’s more of a restatement of my vows, but here goes.

I Jeanette DePatie do take my body

From this day forward.

To have and to hold,

To love and to cherish,

For better or for worse,

For richer for poorer,

In sickness and in health,

Until death us do part,

Amen.

So please accept my somewhat belated wish that you had a happy Love Your Body Day. And let me humbly suggest that you do a little restatement of vows of commitment to loving your own body–to love and cherish all the days of your life. And let me also suggest that one of the best ways to love and cherish your body is to commit acts of radical self acceptance and love like the over 100 acts of love outlined in the new RASCAL program created by Ragen Chastain and I. It’s a great way to spend the rest of the year loving and being kind to yourself. We’re only accepting sign ups through THIS SUNDAY so, REGISTER HERE RIGHT NOW!

Love,

Jeanette DePatie AKA The Fat Chick

P.S. Want me to speak to your group on Love Your Body Day or Any Day? Click HERE to book me!

P.S.S. Want to get free stuff? Join my mailing list RIGHT HERE!