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Beyoutiful Beauty

It’s All About Small Steps

Lately a lesson has really been drilled into my head: it’s all about small steps.

Last year I posted a picture of my legs in Old Navy pajama pants. In the last few weeks, I posted a selfie of me wearing a crop top and skirt. What a difference a year can make!

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Taking this photo was terrifying. I put these @oldnavy shorts on when doing laundry earlier today and haven’t changed clothes yet. I just finished rereading @brittanyherself’s first book #fatgirlwalking, and I felt inspired and fired up to start speaking more about body positivity and normalizing all different types of bodies, especially on social media. I may not be wearing a bikini in Times Square like she did, but I’m sharing a photo of my thighs and calves, which honestly seems just as scary to me. I spent so many years being ashamed of my body. I wanted to hide it and blend in so other people would leave me alone and not bully me. I don’t face nearly as much bullying as an adult, at least from others. I need to normalize my body on social media because honestly it still doesn’t feel 100% normal and accepted to me yet. I write about self-love and body positivity, but it’s something I still struggle with on a daily basis. It’s time that I was more honest about that. So here I am, being vulnerable in a pair of shorts. Please know that you can accept your body too, whether it’s bigger, smaller or the same as mine. It takes hard work, but the best things in life always do. And I’m always here to listen and relate. We’re all in this together. #allbodiesaregoodbodies #mybeyoutifuljourney

A post shared by Jessica Kuehn (@beyoutiful_jessica) on

A year ago, I never would’ve imagined posting a full body selfie of me in a crop top. Pajama shorts were out of my comfort zone then, and that’s okay.

I’ve slowly made changes, little by little, to keep expanding my comfort zone.

Today it includes crop tops and short red dresses, and who knows what it’ll include next year?

It’s neat to reflect back on who I was a year ago. I’m the same but different: smarter, stronger, more confident and less self-conscious about my body.

I was scared shitless to post that photo of my thighs and legs a year ago. I remember that feeling. But now I’m excited to show off my crop top.

Little steps, friends. Little steps add up and can make all the difference, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time.

When I look back on the past year or so, it becomes really apparent how small things that I thought didn’t matter have ended up being really meaningful.

I remember how scary it was for me to post any selfies at all in the past, regardless of how much makeup I was wearing or what clothes I had on. I thought I was really ugly, that no one would like it/me or care that I posted any photos of myself at all. 

Even though I felt like that at the surface, I knew deep down that I was meant for more than how I was feeling all the time. So I made the decision to do what I can when I can, even if it feels so minuscule that it couldn’t possibly matter.

But guess what? It does matter. All of it.

Put on some pajama pants. Wear your favorite shirt or tank top and take a selfie of it, even if you never show anyone. Wear things that make you happy, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Take a picture of yourself every once in a while.

It all, including lots of really small steps, really, truly matters.

Photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash

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