Learning about Self-worth

A chat with a friend about self-worth/self-love really made me think about how I started to build my own self-worth.

I used to feel tiny, small, not confident about myself at all. Lifting weights completely changed that. The heavier I lifted, the more empowered I felt.

Then an injury changed everything.

When my tailbone started to hurt our of nowhere and lifting even just 10lbs hurt, I felt pretty useless. What worse was that when I asked another trainer to help me lift a bar up, he was joking how I couldn’t even lift 65lbs. Damn his words stung more than I expected.

But feeling so hurtful by that was actually a gift. I realized I was measuring my worth by how much I could lift. Am I not worthy of anything if I ever get very sick and can’t lift any weight at all? My value was still coming from something external.

The injury really helped me to see that my worth should not be defined by how much I can lift, or how much money I make, or what people think of me. I am worthy of love simply because I exist. My self-worth should not change with any circumstances, and I should always love myself no matter what.

Even though it took me three months to fully recover, it was definitely a bless in disguise. What a great lesson haha.