Love Fully and Get Hurt Fully: It’s the Only Way to Experience Life to the Fullest
As the compassionate women we are, we’ve all had our share of love and losses. The one thing that remains constant in those fleeting romantic relationships is that it is always worth it in the end. That first glance, that first accidental touch of the hand, the first time you kiss, it’s hard to beat that feeling. I’ve always told my teenage son, “You have to love fully and get hurt fully, it’s the only way to experience life to the fullest.” Does the heartbreak part suck? Yep. Horribly.
But, did you learn something about yourself in the process? I can almost guarantee that’s also an absolute yes. We are meant to love, this is how we literally keep humanity going and growing. What we’re not often taught growing up is how to love ourselves, leading to a lot of issues in our adult life regarding any type of relationship.
How can we have healthy relationships if we were never taught self-love practices? We are meant to experience great love in our lifetime, we better believe that! The sooner we start consistently showing ourselves grace, forgiving ourselves and taking a serious look at ourselves in the mirror, the sooner we’ll know the feeling of being in love. Girl, not the “in love” we feel when we’re with another person, but the love we feel when we’re doing things that bring us joy before giving all our energy to everybody else.
To be quite honest, from personal experience, I know that having mirror time with yourself is so powerful because you can’t lie to your own eyes for too long. It’s quite a self-accountability check, but one we all need more often. Life can get uncomfortable, it isn’t always easy, but when we find that genuine self-love, we can conquer anything. So try it! Go to the mirror, stare at your reflection for 90 seconds and even if it gets uncomfortable, push through until you show yourself the unconditional love you deserve.
The 90 second stare is a practice that’s shared in the B.O.W Beauty of Women community. This sisterhood exists to support each other in our self-love journeys. We can let doubt take over so quickly because we’ve been so hard on ourselves for so long. Thank goodness for the women stepping up to show us their self-love practices so we can all grow together. If you need some good ladies to follow for a daily self-love reminder, see the list below.
This year is all about EVOLUTION, which means choosing to love hard with no fear even if we don’t know the outcome. Our journeys are called that for a reason, there is no destination, only moments. With that knowledge, how then can we deny ourselves the greatest feeling of all, love? So, go for it! Ask him out, ask her out, take yourself out! Whatever you do, just make sure you’re doing it from a place of pure self-love because girl, you are so worthy and love is so worth it.
self-love advocates to follow:
@3rdSimplicity - She educates on womb wellness and makes holistic products that help with over health and self-love practices.
@reneesserenity - She is an experienced massage therapist and reiki master that gives massages straight from the source of love from the universe. A must have for self-love.
@chandralynchofficial - She is a professional photographer and brand expert that helps business owners re-ignite their passion through the way she promotes self-love.
Sarah Boutwell is a photographer of 18 years turned into professional speaker, woman empowerment advocate, writer and women’s event/retreat host. Once she started providing intentional photo sessions that start with a vulnerable 2-way interview, she knew her natural ability to get weirdly vulnerable was going to change her world and impact others. Overcoming her own struggles of childhood sexual trauma and an auto-immune disease that covers her skin in red dots, the self-proclaimed Vulnerability Queen now encourages women to own their story and their skin.
“We can’t get out of either, so we might as well embrace who we are fully because there is no other way to self-love.” @vulnerabilityqueen