3 Things I Want You to Remember This Summer

 

Hey hey beautiful human!

Summer has a way of making us feel a little more aware of our bodies than usual. The swimsuits, the pool days, the photos, the warmer weather, and being around other bodies can bring up thoughts you may not have been dealing with the rest of the year.

And even if you have been showing up for yourself, working on your relationship with your body, and trying to feel more confident, summer can still catch you off guard.

In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I’m sharing three honest reminders I want you to carry with you this season. There are no strategies or action steps in this one. Just the words I want you to come back to when your body image feels loud, when comparison starts creeping in, or when you feel tempted to sit out of your own life because you do not feel your best.

What’s Discussed:

  • Why swimsuit season can bring up body image struggles, even when you have done a lot of inner work

  • Why the people who love you are not focused on the things you are picking apart

  • How to remember what you bring to the room beyond how you look

  • Why your body deserves grace after everything it has carried you through this year

  • How summer can make comparison feel louder and less fair

  • Why comparing your real life to someone else’s curated moment will never give you the full truth

  • How to let the authentic version of you show up, get in the photo, get in the water, and enjoy your life now

If summer has been making you feel more self-conscious than confident, this episode is your reminder that you do not have to wait for some future version of yourself to enjoy the season you are already in. You are allowed to show up, be present, and make memories in the body you have today.

If you have been wanting a place where you can feel strong, capable, and supported by women who understand what it is like to keep showing up in real life, head to movementwithjulie.com and get started inside the Movement With Julie app.

If you loved this episode, you’ll also love Episode 628: 4 Ways to Talk to Yourself Like Someone You Actually Love. It will help you keep practicing the kind of inner dialogue that supports you, especially on the days when body image feels hard and you need to come back to a more loving way of speaking to yourself.

If you want more from me, be sure to check out…

Transcript

(0:00) Hey, hey beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you (0:06) but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Reel with me, Julie Ledbetter.

(0:13) I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. (0:19) Stay tuned if you're ready to Embrace Your Reel. Let's get it, let's go! (0:32) Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode on the Embrace Your Reel podcast.

Okay, summer is here. (0:37) And I'm just gonna say, even for me, even after all the work that I've done on my relationship with my body, (0:43) there is just something about swimsuit season that gets us women all in our heads, right? (0:48) Especially moms who just had babies or even had babies 15, 20, 30 years ago, okay? (0:54) The pool days, the pictures, being around other bodies in a way that just doesn't happen the rest of the year. (0:59) It just has a way of making you a lot more aware of yourself than maybe you want to be or (1:05) maybe you have been in a long time.

And if you've been showing up all year, you've been taking care of yourself, (1:11) and summer still just caught you off guard, this episode is for you. In today's episode, (1:15) I'm just gonna be sharing some honest reminders to carry with you in this season. No strategies, no action steps, (1:21) just some things that I really want you to hear when you're not quite feeling yourself to remind you (1:25) that you're allowed to be present and enjoy summer exactly as you are.

So if you're getting (1:32) ready to head out today, I want you to put this on while you do your hair, while you're picking out (1:36) your outfit, because by the time that you walk out the door, I want you to feel steadier than when you (1:41) press play. And honestly, I want you to save this one and come back to it whenever summer starts (1:45) to feel loud again. Before I dive in though, I want to share this review.

She gave a five-star (1:50) review and said, seriously love this podcast. Since starting Julie's Movement with Julie (1:54) Workout app, along with listening to this podcast, I feel like I have found the missing (1:59) piece to my health and wellness. I love this so much.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your (2:03) day to send in this review. And I couldn't be more grateful that you feel like this is the missing (2:08) piece. My hope and prayer for every episode is that you walk away feeling encouraged, empowered, (2:13) educated in some way, shape or form.

So thank you in advance for going over to Apple Podcasts (2:18) and leaving your rating interview. It does mean the world to me and our team. Just kind of know (2:22) how maybe a specific episode or just in general how the podcast is helping you.

All right, (2:26) let's get into the first of the three reminders that I'm going to share with you today. Number one, (2:31) the people who love you want you around regardless of how you look. I want you to think about the (2:35) people in your life that love you.

Your best friend who lights up when you walk in the door, (2:40) your sister who saves your seat without thinking twice, your kids who are just waiting for you (2:43) in the morning and they just look at you and they're like, yay, mom, I want you to ask yourself (2:50) something. When your best friend walks through the door, are you scanning her body? Are you (2:54) mentally noting what has changed since the last time? Picking apart what she's wearing, wishing she (2:58) looked different? No, you're just happy that she's there. You probably yell her name from across the (3:02) room.

You walk up to her with open arms, knowing that you're about to have a beautiful time (3:06) together. This is exactly how the people who love you feel when you show up. They want you (3:12) around because of how you make them feel because of the way that you laugh at things that nobody (3:17) else finds as funny because of the way that you show up for people because a room with you in it (3:22) just hits different from a room without you and they feel that and even on the days that you have (3:27) completely forgotten it, it's still there.

You add something to the lives of people that love you (3:32) that has nothing to do with what you look like and it does not change based on how you feel (3:36) in your body in any given day, right? So when the noise starts to get really loud and you (3:42) start to want to shrink, I want you to come back to actually what you do bring to the table (3:46) because of who you are as a person because I promise you it's a lot and next time that (3:50) you're sitting in front of the mirror, you're pulling at your outfit, wondering if you need (3:53) to cover up something or change something into something safer. I want you to remember this, (3:58) that people who love you are not noticing any of that. They're just happy to be in your presence.

(4:04) Number two, your body has done a lot this year. It deserves some grace, not just criticism. (4:09) Your body has been quietly showing up for you this whole time.

It's gotten out of bed (4:13) on the mornings that you didn't feel like it. It pushed through the workouts on the (4:17) weeks that just life was a lot. It has carried you through on the hardest days, (4:21) the busy seasons, the moments where you're just running on empty, but you keep going anyways.

(4:25) It has been doing its job every single day and now summer arrives and suddenly there's (4:31) less to hide behind. You're wearing swimsuits instead of jeans. Your arms are out instead (4:35) of covered up and the body that has been with you through all of it working for you, (4:39) recovering for you, showing up for you suddenly is getting the harshest feedback (4:44) that it's seen all year.

And I just want to say this, we would never do any of this (4:48) to anything else in our lives. We would never put in months of work towards something and (4:53) then stand in front of it and rip it apart. But somehow when it comes to our bodies, (4:57) we don't even hesitate.

We go straight for the jugular and most of the time we don't even (5:01) notice that we're doing it. But your body is not waiting to be finished before it deserves your (5:06) kindness. It's not a rough draft or before photo.

It's the body that has been carrying (5:10) your actual life day in and day out. And it deserves to be treated like it means something (5:16) because it does. So I want you to give it some grace.

It has earned it and so have you. (5:20) You deserve to move through this summer without being at war with yourself every single day. (5:26) And last but not least, number three, comparison is never a fair fight, especially in the summer.

(5:31) It's no secret that summer is a peak comparison season. Our feeds are full of highlight, (5:35) real bodies, vacation photos, everyone looking their most curated. And when you are already (5:40) feeling more visible and more vulnerable than usual, scrolling through all of that is just not (5:45) a fair fight.

You are measuring your everyday unfiltered real life against someone else's (5:50) most carefully selected moment. The best angle, the best lighting, the most flattering shot (5:54) out of 47 attempts. This is what you are comparing yourself to.

And it's never going to add up. (6:00) And that's why I really need you to understand that almost every single woman you are comparing (6:05) yourself to has her own version of this conversation happening internally. The woman at the beach who (6:11) looks effortlessly comfortable, she has things that she's carrying too.

The woman in the photo (6:16) whose body you quietly measured against yourself, she has hard days. She has moments where she's (6:21) picked apart herself to the dead end, right? She has her own insecurities that you cannot see (6:28) from the outside. You are not the only one at war with yourself, not even close.

So the sooner (6:33) that you stop treating comparison, like it is giving you accurate information, the sooner you (6:38) can actually come back to your own life, which by the way is the only one worth living. So the next (6:43) time that you feel it creeping in, I want you to bring it back, bring it to your own body, (6:48) your own experience, your own summer. This is where everything worth having is actually happening.

(6:54) And I want to leave you with this. The most beautiful version of you is the authentic one, (6:58) the one who shows up where she wants to show up, who wears what makes her feel good, (7:02) who gets in the water, gets in the photo, stays at the table, who stops waiting for some future (7:07) version of herself to give her permission to enjoy her life and just lives in the now, (7:13) in the body that she has today. That woman is already you.

And this summer I really, (7:18) really, really hope and pray that you let her show up. If you've been wanting a place where (7:22) you just want to feel strong and capable and surrounded by women who are already showing up (7:27) for themselves, week in and week out, this is exactly where my Movement With Julie app is. (7:31) It's not just workouts, it's community of real women, real moms, real working professionals who (7:37) just get it.

They're in it with you. If you want to learn more, you can go to sale. That's (7:42) S-A-L-E dot Movement With Julie dot com to get started.

I will link it in the show notes below. (7:46) If this episode resonated with you, I also think that you'll love episode 569, (7:51) five things to remember when your body confidence is feeling low. I will go ahead and link that in (7:56) the show notes below so that you can easily go check that out.

But save this episode, (7:59) come back to it on the hard days and just go enjoy your summer. You have earned it (8:04) and I will see you in the next one. Love you.

All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. (8:16) But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me (8:22) on the Gram, be sure to do so Julie A. Ledbetter.

Yes, it's with an A in the middle (8:26) for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to (8:32) keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts (8:37) to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me.

It means the absolute world. (8:44) And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my (8:48) life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves.

(8:55) Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. (8:59) So go out there and embrace your realm because you're worth it.

 
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