Hey, Ladies-- Stop Standing in the Snow!

I was chatting with my sister a month or so back, we started chatting about some interesting things...
(She's green, I'm white, btw.)

Do you hear what my sister is saying, people? (Or is it read what she's writing..? Whatever.)

Women are SO hard on themselves. We look in the mirror and have our moments of "Woe is me" and "I'm so ugly, how could anyone love me?" and then we get stuck in this mindset. We're not just stuck-- we're raised in this mindset. We grow up in a world where we are never good enough. We're standing in the snow, and our feet are freezing, and we think "Woe is me, my feet are frozen" and then we keep standing there and stuff our faces with chocolate. Why don't we move??

Think about it, ladies-- when your husband/boyfriend/significant other looks at you and says that you're pretty/gorgeous/beautiful/etc, what do you usually say? Do you stare at him like he's blind? Do you tell him "No, I'm not, I have zits raging across my face and my butt is huge and I'm not wearing makeup and I look like a camel!" (or something along those lines)?

What about when random strangers compliment you? I will never forget a situation back in high school, I was at some place for some orchestra concert, I was in all black and had long hair then, and a lady stopped me and complimented me on my appearance. Instead of saying "Thank you" I was a stupid teenager and pointed out some flaw that I had that I thought would somehow negate her compliment or prove her wrong or something. This woman got a little stiff and pretty much told me off, in a very polite way, telling me that I should accept compliments and not be rude. Then she walked off. That's when I realised that she was trying to be genuinely nice, and I had been genuinely a jerk.

I was rewatching an episode of Say Yes To The Dress, and this bride came in with her fiance to look for a wedding dress. She came out in the first dress and the first words out of the fiance's mouth were "Oh wow... You look gorgeous, babe!" And this woman stood up tall on that pedestal and said in a loud voice, "Thank you, dear!"
That blew me away. This was a woman who I'm sure looked in the mirror sometimes and thought she looked fat and ugly. And yet, when her future husband told her she looked beautiful, she knew that she was beautiful and told him so. At some point she decided she didn't like having cold feet, and decided to take her chips and go stand in the sunshine.

I tried this a couple of weeks ago. Usually when Husband Man tells me I'm beautiful I either tell him he's crazy, or I tell him a sort-of "thanks" and look really embarrassed. One evening, however, Husband Man looked at me and called me "gorgeous" and I looked at him and said "Thank you, Husband!"
Do you know what happened?
He was stunned.
And then he was really pleased.  And I'm pretty sure I saw him fall in love with me even more.
I got really embarrassed because he was so happy, but I could tell that he really liked that I acknowledged him as a person, and told him that his opinion mattered to me.
Words say more than what they literally say.

Now, in no way do I think that you should just blandly say "Thank you" to every compliment that is made to you. People are going to compliment you on those days that you feel like you've been simultaneously run over by a herd of buffalo and pooped on by a flock of migrating geese. But when you get a compliment, say "Thank you" and smile. Even if you don't believe it. And then think about why they could have said it. Let people serve you. If someone breaks out of their selfish-shell and acknowledges your presence, you should be flattered. Genuinely.

You can't change your thoughts overnight, but you can start. You can look at yourself in the mirror until you see past the raging wall of zits and imperfections and start seeing the beauty. Think about common compliments you get. Husband Man likes to scritch my nose and tell me it's so cute and little. So one time I stared in the mirror until I actually saw my nose, and I realised that he was kind of right-- my nose is little and cute, and it's covered in freckles (which are pretty cute too).

So move to the sunshine and thaw your toes! What does Elder Uchtdorf say? STOP IT! Think about it-- do you like looking in the mirror and seeing only imperfections? Try a little harder to be a little happier. I'm pregnant, and with pregnancy comes really horrible acne. I've never had acne this bad in my life-- not even close. I can use soap and treatments until my nose falls off and my chin splits in two, but there is more to me and my face than acne. If that's all people see when they look at me, then that's their problem for being a pessimist. I don't want to be a pessimist. I want to enjoy my life, enjoy being pregnant, not spend my days laying on the couch eating chips and bemoaning my "pregnancy glow". I want to stand in the sunshine and be free from frozen toes!