Imperfections

Imperfections are the only things that stop us from having full confidence in ourselves. We all have the things we hate about ourselves: maybe it's your tummy, your feet, your hair... your chin!? - I know the last one is definitely true for me... and pretty much the rest of the things on that list. 
          But the thing is, when we look at ourselves in the mirror, our eyes go straight to our least favoured part. For example (I'll be honest here), when I look in the mirror, I don't exactly look at my favourite part of my body - my eyes, do I? No. I look at my legs, my tummy, my chin... the list goes on. And that sounds awful, because I know a lot of my close friends would say, "But Ellie, you're beautiful!"... but if we're all being honest, we all do it. 

But what I want to talk about is why on earth do we do this!? Surely in the olden days, when women wore gorgeous floor-length dresses and high hair, they didn't look in the mirror and think 'oh my, my hair is just too flat today' or 'my cheeks are way to fat. That's all people will notice'... please tell me they didn't? When we see other people, we don't instantly pick up on only their flaws (well, not all the time...), right? So why do we do it to ourselves? 

At the end of the day, what matters is what's underneath. I know that as a teenager these days (and no doubt every past generation of teens), your image is the most important thing. I used to spend hours putting makeup on, doing my hair, dying my hair to fit the trend, spending money on clothes that I never ended up wearing because they were so uncomfortable. But what I've come to realize is that showing off your imperfections can actually turn them in to assets. 
          A good example of what I've realized is that I used to hate my feet. They are really wide and short and I have strange-looking toes. I found it really hard to find shoes as a kid because of my silly high instep and high arches. But I've been dancing all my life, and when I started Pointe work (dancing on your toes) in Ballet, I realised that my high instep and high arches were actually a gift. My dance teacher would say that I have feet that many professional Ballet dancers would be envious of... and I used to say "that's crazy - why on earth would you want my feet!?" But now I realise it...

God makes us the way we are for a reason. God gave me those strange feet with high insteps, because they were made for dancing. Dancing is a huge part of my life and I have great feet for it, which makes me sound like an arrogant annoying person but I promise, I am anything but sure of myself!
What that example was trying to prove was that you're made the way you are for a reason. Some people may look at my chin and think "wow, that's pointy enough to poke an eye out", but other people may think it's beautiful (not that I understand why they would think that). Imperfections are what make us beautiful, individual, and perfect in unusual ways. 

Sometimes I wish I'd spent less time pointing out my imperfections, and more time thinking of how they make me different and beautiful. 

Until next time, lots of love. 
Ellie x x