Rachel’s Story: The Journey to Love Herself

For Rachel, the breadth of her existence (so far) has been a journey to love herself.

Today, Rachel is sharing why she now feels comfortable with herself both inside and out. She’s also giving some practical advice on how to love and care for your body.

Watch her video for the full story.

I feel like all the preparation that I've done to hit this age is only just gonna be careening into like this is the spaceship I've built and now I'm going off to you know, parts unknown.

Messages that I absorbed growing up about how women were supposed to look all felt very foreign to me. I knew that the norm of society wasn't something that I was a part of or could even be capable of taking advantage of.

So I always sort of sought myself as an outsider when it came to what I thought other people's view of beauty was. A lot because the role models that we have when we were going up. You know, I can look at the people around me and say, "Well, I... you know, she has aspects about her that I aspire to.”

But a lot of the input that we get from the media is showing a very limited view of what that can look like. 

The journey I took to break free from that was long and you know, really encompasses the whole...the breadth of my experience. The inner work that I've done to become more comfortable with myself, the breathwork you know, yoga, getting in touch with my body and feeling more comfortable with myself you know, is really the key.

I did that work on the inside of myself you know. I questioned a lot of things and I had to go really deep to question those assumptions that I had made without knowing.

I feel sexy. Now, I feel sexy. I always felt sexy but like I always felt like that sexy was like it was the bad girl or like because I didn't know what role I was gonna play. You know what I mean?

What role would I play on the TV of you know, in my life like what...am I the spunky best friend or...?

You know, and like I wanted to be this sort of powerful badass that sort of took charge but also was sexy and was beautiful and could carry yourself with grace. I think I'm sexier now than I ever was as a 24-year-old for sure, you know what I mean?

I had something about me, you know. There was always something about me, but now I own it. The shape that I am in now reflects the work that I've done to get here, but the look on my face reflects the work that I've done in here to feel good about it no matter what it looks like, you know.

So now, I love everything about my body unconditionally. It works.

Stop tucking your stomach in! That is a big one you know, there—all of our self-esteem is right here. Take a deep breath, fill out your clothes, feel your body. You know, it's yours. It's not supposed to look like anything at all, it just wants to feel healthy.

Growing older isn't something you should be ashamed of, isn't something you should hide you know. Growing older is something you need to take into account while you're moving through this life you know.

There's some things that are gonna age and decay, and there's some things that you can keep in good condition if you're careful you know.

Anybody's had an object you know, a loved object. You take care of it, you know? You take care of the things that you love.

And if we start to love ourselves a little bit more, we take care of ourselves a little bit more and take some of that power back into our own hands through nutrition and exercise and you know, products that support our cellular structures because they've done some work.

There's people that have done that research, I don't need to. I don't need to make my own skincare line, she's done it for me. So, thanks.