Monday Mantra, you be lookin’ good. Happy MONDAY, friends + peeps. In case you’re new to these rosy parts, let me clue you in: Monday Mantra is a series every few Mondays, with a saying, affirmation, or other mantra to help rock your day and week ahead. We keep it real, short + sweet, and genuinely helpful so that you read and feel uplifted and ready to rock in just a few minutes. Cool? Cool. And not to be cliche, but today we’re playing off of a popular cliche: “every rose has its thorn.” Talking about roses – and not just because of the name of this rosy little blog. Today’s jam:
Too often (like, WAY too often), we let ourselves be defined by our “flaws” – whether we know it or not. We let our self-perceived limitations control our actions, our thoughts about ourselves…even how we perceive others to perceive us! We see the seemingly less-than-perfect versions of us, in our dirty top knots, yoga pants, acne cream, and really-need-a-shower rawness, and we immediately think lesser of ourselves – like we’re unperfect, like we’re unbeautiful, like we’re nothing like 21st century society’s Kardashian couture.
We say to ourselves, “Damn, if only I looked that good in sweats.” We hope no one sees us at the grocery store without our makeup on. We feel insecure around new people, because we fear our “flaws” coming out into the sunshine. We don’t let ourselves laugh uninhibitedly because we’re afraid we might snort, and we don’t let ourselves cry unashamedly during movies because we’re afraid we might “ugly cry.”
In all of this, we’re sending a little tiny signal to ourselves that we’re imperfect – that we’re broken.
Dress (use code Roses10 for 10% off) // Shoes
For real, though. For all my fellow Jesus-lovers in the house, how do you think God feels about that? He made you in His image, exactly as he envisioned you to be, for whatever reason He had when He personally created you to be on this planet. We go around hating our bodies, our voices, our ideas, our quirks…and here, God gave them to us so specifically for His own reasoning. God made you as He wants you to be…so how could you POSSIBLY be broken?!?! GIRLFRIEND. You are not broken. You are beautiful.
And that’s not cheesy – that’s the stone cold truth.
Dress (code Roses10 at checkout) // Shoes
We minimize our own greatness because we don’t feel worthy of the word “beautiful.”
How crazy is that?
We reserve true exclamations of “Wow, how beautiful!” for special occasions, events, or socially beautiful things (like celebrities on the red carpet or fancy sports cars), as if it’s this actually unattainable or rarely seen thing for us.
We tell ourselves we like getting dressed up to “feel beautiful,” as if we need a reason to wear fancier clothes to bring out the beauty in us.
We feel broken otherwise – lesser than the same girl who gets glammed up for date night in a pretty dress and makeup and suddenly feels transformed.
And this is so not cool.
Because we’re feeding this idea of brokenness – of being unbeautiful in the mundanities of everyday life. Of being unbeautiful when washing the dishes and doing the laundry and raising children and working late and scrubbing floors and needing a shower and collapsing in bed at the end of a 14-hour day.
Dress (code Roses10 at checkout) // Shoes
Y’all – no matter how broken you feel in a moment, you are NOT a broken human.
You are beautiful.
And if you still can’t get over the brokenness you feel, here’s the deal: you’re still beautiful.
Now comes the Mantra part – because I so desperately want you to feel differently about yourself, starting, like, yesterday.
Stop what you’re doing and look in the mirror.
Seriously. Grab your purse compact, pull over and look in the rearview, head to the bathroom at work – look in the mirror.
Acknowledge your brokenness. Tell yourself to your own face why you feel broken inside. What pieces of you feel unwhole.
And then say this.
I may be broken, but I am still SO BEAUTIFUL.
I am not defined by the broken things I feel.
I am beautiful. Point. Blank. Period.
The whole idea behind “Coming Up Roses” is totally in line with this, yannnno?
Think about it:
every rose has its thorn.
Roses have always been known as one of the most beautiful, classic flowers – a symbol of love, beauty, and luxury. But every rose has its thorn. Roses start as nothing, they blossom, they have the most gorgeous life…and then they wither and die. But even when they’re at the peak of life – at a full, beautiful, flawless blossom – they’ve got thorns.
And we’re the same way.
We start as nothing.
We have periods of our lives where we FEEL like nothing.
We feel broken, empty, hurt, damaged – broken.
We have thorns, and we are worried – sometimes incessantly – about whether or not they’re showing. Whether or not people judge us for our “flaws,” whether or not we’ll still succeed and get to where we want to go, whether or not the thorns will be too much to handle.
We’re broken…but we’re still beautiful.
I have NEVER heard of someone getting a fresh bouquet of red roses…and look to see how big the thorns were. Have you?
If you get roses, you could not care LESS about the thorns, unless it’s the first thing you meet (upon accidentally stabbing yourself in the hand with one #ouch). Similarly, unless the first thing someone gets slammed with upon meeting you is a face full of your so-called flaws, they likely won’t be noticing them at all…because you are BEAUTIFUL, and there is so much more to you than the perceived thorns in your life.
Roses could be considered broken, by societal standards.
Roses are pretty damn beautiful.
And so are you.
What do you do when you feel broken in life? Do you still feel beautiful?
I’d lovelovelove to hear your own stories – I’m in the mood for some really good girl talk. Ya feel? Let me lift you up – I’d really be honored. When do you feel most broken? When do you feel most beautiful? How can those be brought closer together instead of further apart?
Sound off in the comments below.
