It has been awhile since you’ve heard from me. My life has been a whirlwind since the love of my life got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Yes, that’s right, I’m engaged! Holler! Life has been one fast moving train of joy, and I feel bad that I haven’t had the time to sit down and write. I’m still here, still growing, still learning, and still moving forward. And I hope you are too.

Something that I have realized since being in a committed relationship is that I think when I finally came to a place in my life where I fully loved myself that has helped me open myself up to be loved by someone else (aka my fiancé Mike). I do think that there was a time when I wasn’t fully ready to be vulnerable with someone else, dependent, and open. But I’m finally at a place where I have opened the doors to my heart and have opened myself up to love. That happened when I finally believed I deserved to be loved by myself and others. It has been an incredible journey, one that I am still on, learning to love myself as I grow and change with every new adventure that life brings my way.

In my journey of loving myself, I’ve picked up a few things along the way that I want to share with you. My lessons learned, may not be your lessons to learn, but take the time to reflect on how you love yourself and how you open yourself up to be loved.

I accept my body in all the different shapes and sizes it has been. My body is beautiful and serves a great purpose. It is not broken, it is perfect. I’ve learned to love it.

I am proud of who I have become through my past, my accomplishments, and my story. Every experience has built my life until this day, and I can’t thank it enough that in the end it led me to meet the love of my life. It took lots of patience and trust, and at times this was a huge growth area for me.

I pour into my relationships with friends, family, and myself. I learned to enjoy my own company and to not be afraid to work on the relationship with myself. I also loved the deep conversations, laughter, and adventures that I have shared with my dear friends. They have given me the gift of beautiful fun memories. I’ve learned life is meant to be lived fully, investing in yourself, so you can in turn bless others.

I have learned to fail and make mistakes. Mistakes made, help guided me to a better path. I can’t make different choices for myself if I don’t know which choices are the not so good ones. I want to be the healthiest, happiest version of myself and failures remind me that I can still learn how to get there. Because despite detours, I will still get there.

I reflect often. reflection can take you to the innermost parts of your life and help you spring clean out those junk drawers. I know that by writing I’ve had to unpackage my thoughts, process through the junk and the keep pile, and reorganize my life for the better. Spring cleaning of the soul if you will. By putting myself out there, I’ve also heard from you that  you have similar thoughts and feelings, and that it is great to know that you are not alone in your journey.

I’m not saying that this is a to-do list to help you find your significant other. But it is a reminder that we are all on a journey of love. We all have our things that we can learn to do better and more of to take care of ourselves. Even if we are in a committed relationship, single, or married this is a life long quest as our lives and relationships change over the years.

Love on. Love deeply. Love fully. Love always,

Brittany