How to love our weird and awkward selves
This is a weird and awkward photo of me…
It's an outtake from a photoshoot I did this year before leaving Vietnam.
I have no clue what I'm doing really.
…and I love it 😍
It actually represents what I feel like most of the time.
Weird, and awkward. Limbs flailing. Unsureness. Like I don't really belong here in this field of rice…
But this is also what I LOVE about myself.
I am weird. I am awkward. I am full of unsureness. I do often feel like I don't belong.
And I've learned that this is okay. This is actually what makes me who I am.
I've spent so much of time trying to “tone down” my weirdness.
Trying to not be awkward and forcing myself to just “fit in”.
And it made me dislike myself, because well, I wasn't able to just BE myself.
The more I own the weirdness in and around me, the more I embrace myself as both weird and wonderful.
The weirder I am, or rather how I embrace my weirdness, the more I actually feel like I belong.
The less I care about fitting in and being liked, the more I actually build deeper, more authentic relationships - in my personal life and in my work life.
I recently worked with a coaching client on this too, how to love our weird selves.
We've been working 1:1 for months and I've been honoured to witness her growth and transformation as she sets boundaries, tunes into her needs and expresses them without guilt or fear.
More recently, we've been exploring what cultivating an authentic romantic relationship would be like for her. What this means, what the possibilities are.
Often when we think about entering a relationship - of any kind - we tend to think of all the ways in which they WON'T like us.
What weird things will people notice and how can we hide them so that there's a greater possibility that we'll be liked.
My client started to share the things she thought were weird about herself.
To which I offered this possibility: people can love us FOR OUR WEIRDNESS.
Exploring this possibility in session, we were able to:
Start embodying those things she thought were weird about her as in fact what makes her wonderful, unique and magical
Start expanding her capacity to be liked and loved for who SHE IS (not who she “should” be)
Start embracing her weirdness herself, and standing tall and proud in the world
Start opening herself up to a different way of being in a relationship
This doesn't just apply to romantic relationships, though.
This possibility of people loving us AS WE ARE can also expand into:
Having dream clients paying you for being weird and wonderful.
Having colleagues celebrating you for your weirdness and uniqueness.
Having friends, family, supportive humans around you because of your weird, authentic nature.
It starts with you courageously embracing your weirdness yourself.
What one weird thing can you love about yourself today?
Better yet if you have a weird photo of yourself you want to share… please feel free to do so. Let's celebrate our weirdness together!
And then for the rest of the day, intentionally and purposefully LOVE this part of yourself.
Have fun. See what happens. There are so many possibilities 💛
The weird in my heart, sees and celebrates the weird in your heart,
Victoria
ps. if you're ready to start connecting back to and evolving the relationship you have with yourself in a compassionate, mindful, intuitive way… you might be a fit for my 1:1 coaching program. Book a connection call with me here, let's find out (it's complimentary, of course!)
In my 1:1 coaching, I meet you where you're at. Whether you want to focus on being more confident, or authentic in a relationship, or growing your business in an authentic way, or feeling more grounded in your current job, that's where you'll be supported. Often, and in my experience with my clients, all of these things connect back to our relationship with ourselves.
More on coaching with me + client love:
https://victorianhan.com/coaching
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