{Love You: Erin}

Happy Friday sweet friends!  Today I am so excited to bring you the 2nd DahliaLynn "Love You" feature from the talented and beautiful Erin of House of Earnest.  I hope that the warm and fuzzy sitting on my shoulder that I get after reading these features from these inspiring ladies never goes away.  Don't want to spoil Erin's "loves", but I have to say my favorite part of her feature is when she talks about loving her legs.  No only because of how they look, but because of all the places they have taken her in life.  I think so often we focus on the physicial look of our bodies, and Erin reminds us to show the love for the life that our bodies can let us live.  Read on to see what else Erin is loving about herself today. 

"Hi everyone!  I’m Erin from House of Earnest, and when Jessica asked if I’d like to participate in the ‘Love You’ series, I knew that I wanted to help share in the movement to practice more self-affirmation, and show myself a little more love than what I was used to doling out.  After sitting down and thinking through some of my qualities, I landed on a couple things to share with you all!

1.  I love that I look terribly young. Maybe it’s the button nose, maybe it’s the round cheeks, but I have recently just started to face (and now love) the fact that I look much younger than I am.  It may seem silly, especially now that we’re getting older, but I used to hate it.  People would ask me what year I was in High School just until recently, I get carded at R-rated movies and I could totally forget about trying to get a drink without an ID.  One of my biggest internal struggles in life is not feeling like a successful adult.  I really struggle with giving myself credit in my accomplishments, and relishing in the joy of my big achievements.  Instead I’ve looked at each step as just a way to show people I was actually successful,  and I felt that looking young really was counteractive to that goal of success.  As I’ve grown into myself, my career, and my life goals, I’ve started to actually like –wait, love- the fact that I look young.  People always said that I would appreciate it when I got older, and in this case, they’re right. Which leads me to my next point…

2.  I love that I have found success in business.  I truly love it.  Most of the time, I’m running around like a mad person, working 14 hour days, traveling around the globe for weeks at a time working in fashion apparel for a major retailer. Then I top it off with all of the work I do for House of Earnest, and it’s downright insane, but I love it.  I love the work itself, but as it relates to my point above, I also love that I’ve found my own niche for success. 

3.  I love my legs.  Now that’s a rough one to say, but I’ll shout it if you’d like me to, I think that would be therapeutic.  From about middle school until just about four years ago, I refused to wear shorts, and I really despised my legs.  I thought they were so ugly.  About four years ago, however, It kind of hit me, and I thought that these are the only legs I’ve got.  They’ve brought me so far in life (literally!) and hating them is so wrong.  I played lacrosse with them, cheerleading, tumbling and gymnastics with them, and they have allowed me to travel the world, see new things, hike, bike, walk, run, and live the life that I know and love.  Now, that might seem silly, but once I made that mental step, I started wearing skirts, then eventually shorts, then I kind of just realized that everyone has their thing, and nobody would probably ever look at my legs and scoff – it was just all in my head.  Now, don’t get me wrong it’s still in my head.  I’m not magically cured, but I think my appreciation grew to like and like grew to love (that’s a quote from the wedding planner, in case it sounded familiar)!  So today I can comfortably say that I love my legs.

Thank you, Jessica for allowing me to share a little piece of myself and spread the encouragement to reflect upon the things we love about ourselves! I hope you all take a moment today and give it some thought.  Say it out loud, too (I think that helps!)."

So my friends are you feeling the love?  I certinaly am!!  Taking inspriation from Erin, I am going to make a list of all the things my body has done for me lately to show the love.  Hope you enjoyed our Friday with Erin, and I hope you have a safe and love filled weekend...J