SELF LOVE CHALLENGE || THE RECAP

Hey Guys!
How's the week going? Splendid I hope.
Let me give you guys a heads up, this post is quite lengthy so, please bear with me.

So the Self Love Challenge is officially over!! Yaay! Honestly it was an amazing experience that opened my eyes to a whole lot of things and this post is a honest recap of my experience in the Last 30 days.

Now for as many that participated, you would know that the challenge was more of a spiritual, and psychological thing than physical. In the sense that most times, you have to sit down and think about some things in your life, whether they are working for you or not and then make a conscious decision to do away with the bad and embrace the good.
Before I talk about my own experience, I will share a friend's experience with you. This is an old friend from high school whom i reconnected with shortly before I started the challenge and he told me he was interested in doing the challenge but I would have to put him through. I was really excited and after the whole thing, this is his recap;

"For me, the challenge was not just a physical thing, I felt that the spiritual also had a lot to do with it. The daily confessions were a bit funny to me at first because having to stand in front of the mirror and say things out were a bit funny, I didn't even believe what I was telling myself. But at some point, I started believing these things and seeing myself the way God sees me. The very remarkable thing this challenge did was that it helped me get out of a relationship. I realized that my relationship was quite demeaning because there were some of her friends she didn't tell we were dating and I confronted her that if she wasn't proud of me, then there was no point because I am someone to be proud of. After the break up, she came back begging but we didn't get back together because right now I love myself more. I really appreciate the challenge and even though it has come to an end, it hasn't for me because it has really changed my way of thinking." - Samuel Niyi.

This gives me so much Joy honestly you have no idea. Samuel if you're reading this, Thank you sooo much for participating and sharing this with us. God bless you.

I was meant to start the challenge on the 1st of August but I officially started in the 3rd of August. I started late because I wasn't really serious about it. It's one thing to write it down and it's another to actually do it and because I had done nothing like this before, I was just taking my time which wasn't meant to be. After I read a comment about someone waiting for my post on the self love challenge, I realized that this wasn't about me alone and I had to step it up a notch, and so we started the challenge.
If you remember correctly, the challenge was divided into three (3) stages, and I'll be doing a recap of all three stages individually.

The first ten (10) days which was about "Detox and Cleansing" were quite difficult for me. Now some of the requirements of that stage was to let go of past mistakes and wounds, getting rid of toxic thoughts and filling your mind with happy thoughts,etc. All of these were a little bit difficult for me as I said earlier because I had a major argument with a very close friend of mine over a mistake I made and I had been trying to let go of. Now I struggled with letting go all over again because the wound had been reopened, and I also struggled with not fighting with this my friend because I honestly didn't have the strength for that. I also got a call from home that made me quite sad so filling my mind with happy thoughts was a constant struggle because I wasn't really happy.
After praying and just handing over all of my worries to God, the issue from home was fixed almost instantly, the one with the friend not so much.
However, what I learned from that stage is that you're the only one in charge of what you accept and take from people. You're in charge of whether you want to dwell in positivity or otherwise. In every aspect of life, you have to look for the silver lining because there's a lot of toxic vibes everywhere, but you need to look for the positive part in everything to enable you move forward in life. There are a lot of things that you actually think are good for you but they are really very toxic and will make you go back to where you have struggled so hard to leave.
You need to distant your self from EVERYTHING that doesn't serve you, grow you or make you feel good about yourself. It might take a while but it will do you a lot of good in the long run.

The Second Stage which was the Appreciation stage was a little bit more interesting and peaceful than the first but it didn't go without its own challenges. Part of the requirements was to come up with a mantra and repeat it every day. Honestly I can count the number of times I did this, most times I forgot, other times, I simply wasn't up for it. One thing I can tell you though is that the times I did it, it felt good and emotional as well. Actually whenever I said that mantra, it quickly escalated to a prayer session; then I'll hear myself saying "Adeola you will succeed, everything that says you will not will..." lol

Before now, I had constantly worked on my self esteem so I'm actually at a place in my life where you can say anything you want about me and I won't even bat an eyelash. But there was an incident on Twitter during this stage. While I was doing my social media rounds I saw that someone mentioned me, let it be known that I don't follow this guy, neither does he follow me, like I don't even know him. So he mentions me and asks whether my legs are on diet.

Apparently, my legs are too skinny for his sight. Truth is I had replied this guy a million ways in my head but I just took a breather and typed that if he didn't have any sensible question to ask me, he should keep moving. He then replied me with a kiss smiley, unfortunately I have no business with body shamers and cyber bullies so I didn't reply him after that.
Now this taught me something. No matter how much good you do to/for yourself, there are people whose jobs are primarily to bring you down. Rather than stoop to their level or begin to beat yourself up, let there be a clear gap between you and those kinds of people because even if you say they wont get to you, you're only human afterall.
The Final Stage which was the growth stage was the most amazing of them all. I stepped out of my comfort zone by attending The Blogger Point's brunch (click Here for deets!) You might say how is that even relevant? But I know myself, that was a major progress for me. I also read a book titled "How to make people Marvel at you" this book is amazing! And I even want to share it with as many of you as possible. So please if you want it, kindly drop your email address in the comment section and I'll email it to you.

I can't begin to explain how much of an eye opener this book was for me. You'll find out yourself😉
Part of the requirements of this stage was also to celebrate our victories no matter how small or big. Some wonderful things really happened to me in this stage.
Firstly, I passed my NIM exams! I was so scared because as I said Here, it wasn't easy for me but God took control of it.
Another thing was that two (2) brands contacted me to work with me. I was very surprised because this isn't something that I'm used to but the Lord has his own way of doing things. You guys will know in due time when I start working with them so watch this space.

The challenge wasn't rosy but I can tell you that I came out of it as a new and confident person. I know this was only for 30 days but loving yourself isn't a seasonal thing, it's an everyday thing so my last piece of advice for you my wonderful readers is that in whatever you do, love yourself first.

P.s- if there were others that participated in the challenge and want to share their own story, kindly send me an email to aadeoti87@yahoo.com or you could drop it in the comment section. ❤

Mide♡