The road to happiness within myself

The encouraging words of ‘self improvement’, well this is quite a phrase I have struggled with for a long time. The words self improvement goes into how one feels about themselves, for health and appearance reasons. Social media has distorted my form of self-image and what the ideal form of success with identity truely is. I look in the mirror and still see flaws, of course there are good days and bad days but am never truely content with what I see. My weight has fluctuated dramatically and no matter what weight I had reached, whether big or small I have never been content. The first thing I realised was constantly comparing myself to the images I see on Instagram and asking myself why I don’t look that certain way. This is where I went wrong, everyone’s bodies are different and the main take from it is no matter if I had the same diet and exercise of that Instagram model, my body still wouldn’t look the same as theirs. I unfollowed all these influencers that promoted unachievability and had started following the ones who had promoted acceptance and health. My favourite kind were the girls that promoted different body poses to show the Instagram vs reality versions. I have realised that Self -improvement is not trying to reach the same bodies as other girls I ‘admire’ and want to look like but rather what I can improve outside and myself. I no longer strive for the ‘perfect body’ I view on social media and you know what, to me, that is the greatest self-improvement for me. On another note, exercise is a positive approach for me. I used to exercise for weight loss and the weight on the scale to go down. This form of thinking is very negative and enabled me to go down a drastic road of unhappiness. The moment I realised exercise makes me feel good and have better mental health was the day my life and view on myself had changed forever, for the better of course. Whether it’s going on a run outdoors or kayaking I am taking in nature and it barely feels like exercise but rather grounding and calming. The crisp air that surrounds me allows me to appreciate the sights seen and enables me to feel fulfilled. There is so much beauty in the world and sometimes people are too engulfed in the basis of life that no one takes a step back and appreciates the beauty that encapsulates our world. The moment I stopped focusing on silly things for example, that stupid thing that keeps playing in the back of my head but rather thinking “you were brave enough to even take part in that event” unconditional positive said to yourself can greatly improve your mind and how you view yourself. The beauty of being self-reflective has allowed me to know where I can improve, rather than cringe at the silly thing I did, everything that happens in life is a lesson or a gift and realising thing helped my mental health for the greater. Self-identity is a major concept in a persons life, may be even the whole encompass of a person. The realisation that every individual is unique and amazing in their own way makes the world such a beautiful place and knowing that every individual was brought into the world for a reason makes me extremely cheerful and I hope that one day I can make a change for many people’s lives just by a compliment that would boost their day, because at the end of the day making people happy is rewarding for me. That being said, I am still on the road to improving my self-identity but I am grateful for how far I have come reflecting back one to three years and am excited to see what the future holds.

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By Sophia Daher