Love, kindness, affection, respect and companionship is not only difficult to find, but is even more challenging for loads of us to accept and live with. This applies to a lot of us, but for the sake of this post, I’m speaking to those of us which are still trying to love our bodies wholly and fully. When you’ve spent nearly a quarter of your life being made to feel less than and unworthy of love because of your body, it’s incredibly alien and - frankly - weird, when you meet someone who genuinely likes and finds us attractive. Being loved arouses anxiety because it threatens our long-standing psychological defences formed early in our lives in relation to emotional pain and rejection. When you’ve had negative experiences in previous relationships based on how you look, you’re always on the watch for threats. Its natural for us to want to protect ourselves! Being loved fully, unapologetically, genuinely and deeply can feel weird for those of us who have never experienced it, and naturally our first instincts are to push them away, but all that does is hurt the ones who are trying to help undo years of trauma. • We are all worthy of being loved, and there’s nothing wrong with being vigilant, as long as you’re still able to let the love in. • It’s okay to challenge your behaviour when your notice yourself blocking your blessings. • You never need to physically hide yourself from someone who truly loves all of you. If you find that you are (and the other person has given you no reason to think they don’t like you) then it means there’s still work to be done on recognising your worth. - Writing this for those that need it, as well as for me because maaaaan I didn’t know how hard it would be.