Welcome to the 30 Days of Self-Love Reflections (30 DSLR for short)!!!! For those of you just stumbling across my site and this movement, the 30 DSLR is to bring a positive change into each of our lives one day at a time. Each day will feature a new topic and message to reflect on and motivate positivity throughout your day and, hopefully, beyond. I look forward to everyone’s participation and the growth it will bring us! Here we go! 😀

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When trying to decide what topic would best suit the start of 30 DSLR only one thing came to mind. Confidence. Confidence portrays so much beauty and strength, yet somehow always seems just out of reach to achieve. Why? Because we don’t believe we deserve it or fail to see what we have to feel confident about.

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That’s right. We each have something in which to lay confidence. All of us have unique strengths and qualities that we should not ignore or gloss over, but instead lift up into the light and proclaim as our own with pride and joy. Those things which we can take ownership of in confidence come in many shapes and sizes. You can see it in your mad cooking skills, your ability to make others laugh and laugh with them, your giving of love for a friend/spouse/child, your ability to push your body in a workout, your smile, your good sense of style, your mind and ability to problem solve, your compassion on others, your go with the flow demeanor…ANYTHING!

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Do not forget your strengths by focusing on weaknesses, because we all have those too. BUT those do not define us. Our strengths define us. Something else to remember. You are stronger than you think. You may not believe so, but you have the power to change everything. You have the power to turn your life into something beautiful. You are reading this post and stepping out to love yourself more, then in turn love others more, and then have the potential to change the world. Yes, YOU! Each of us have that power and simply moving, or even desiring to move, towards a positive place speaks volumes.

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Be confident in what you can do! Trust in yourself and the changes YOU can make and that can happen in you. We all start somewhere. I did too. I knew I couldn’t keep half living and things didn’t change in one day. It hurt and many tears fell on my path. They still do. BUT I knew change was possible and that I could be that change. I did gain confidence in God, but I still had to do the actions. If I can do it, you can too. Take those steps and remember how wonderful you are. BE CONFIDENT TODAY! Tell yourself you can do this. You can change your outlook, your focus, the message you share. You can!

Take a few moments to quietly reflect on confidence and recognize what you have to offer. You have something! Focus on that throughout the day. Whenever you feel down, remember who YOU are and what you have to be proud of. Don’t negate it!

What do you have to be confident about? Proclaim it in the comment section and don’t forget that affirmation!

Quotes to Reflect On
It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not. ~Author Unknown

We have to learn to be our own best friends because we fall too easily into the trap of being our own worst enemies. ~Roderick Thorp, Rainbow Drive

**To be added to the email list and receive links to the posts in the morning, please let me know of your interest in a comment below.

Thank you so much for those of you who left feedback on the last post. You really helped calm me down and gain some perspective. After some thought and consulting with the big guy in the sky, I tend to agree with what a lot of you mentioned. That the 30 Days is something special and should receive appropriate time and effort. For that reason, I will continue with two posts/day – one “30 Days” post and one “me” post. I’ll try to keep from rambling too much in the latter one. 😉 So look for this new approach TOMORROW!!! Thankfully, I’m back to being thrilled and not choking on nervousness.

Please remember what this movement is about. The 30 Days of Self-Love Reflections (or 30 DSLR…hehe I just noted its initials! perfect for bloggers!) serves the following purpose: to help us all learn to love ourselves more and to uplift one another in the process. To begin to realize our true beauty and value. To battle the inner dialogue that strives to bring us down. In short, it will help us to love ourselves like we should have never stopped doing. This may manifest itself in many forms – not only through recognizing your beauty, but also feeling stronger and more valued as a person.

Keep in mind this is NOT a religious or Christian only reflection. I may reflect on some of how my faith helped me in my responses to questions and discussions, but that will not be the focus of the topics.As much as I hope each of you know God’s love for you, I’m not here to preach or convert anyone with this process. Please don’t let that hold you back from participating.

I strongly encourage finding a few minutes each day to reflect on the given topic. Don’t just read through the post. Really think about how it applies to you and what you can take away from it. Use the message in your day. Also, commenting will go a long way in putting a strong personal statement to your reflections so please participate in this fashion. What a strong testament it will be to put your reflections (that aren’t too personal) out there. Also, I hope to use your comments in future 30 Days, depending on how this one goes.

I also appreciate all of you sharing with others to help promote something I truly believe can be a stepping stone to changing our lives one day at a time. Post, tweet, facebook, email, put up the button, whatever with it. Let’s help make a difference. And thank you in advance to those of you I know will do so or have already done so.

A bit more housecleaning to finish up this post:

• I sent out this week’s topics to those in the email list a few hours ago. If you did NOT receive an email and want to be on the 30 Days email list, please let me know in a comment below.
• The winner of the Thermos Hydration Bottle Giveaway is #10…

…Averie!! You are one lucky chick girl with all your giveaway winnings. Enjoy the bottle! I hope you (& Skylar) love it. 😀 Send me your delivery information so I can get it to the Thermos people.

• Please check out my guest post over at Erin’s blog – The Healthy Apron. It coincides with Operation Beautiful. Which reminds me, my Healthy Tipping Point story will appear on Caitlin’s blog tomorrow, along with a promotion of the 30 Days so look out for that. 🙂

I apologize for the longer, less entertaining post! It needed to be said though. Now I’m off to hang out with my sister! And make kale chips for the first time. Wish me luck!

What do you most hope to get out of the 30 Days? What are you most excited for?