The power of Belief

Today I watched Erica Wall's story on My 600 LB life (season 5, episode 6) and it felt a little too close to home for me in certain ways. Erica has a very toxic family and throughout the episode it was clear she was needing their love and support and she felt so alone and unsupported. Her sister Molly degraded her even when she was doing well/ sticking to it. I felt for her because being degraded by someone you love feels like the worst kind of rejection. How can we expect people to want to get better when there is criticism and rejection from the very people you need support from? Ultimately I figured out that no one gets through this by being completely supported by someone else; it's a fallacy we create because we have believed for years that we are not good enough/strong enough/smart enough. I think maybe the weakness lies not in our true character but in the fact that we are looking for motivation, guidance and strength from everywhere but ourselves. We don't allow random strangers to tell us what God to worship, what job we should take or how many children we should have, why do we rely so heavily on others to tell us what to eat? This episode made me realize that looking for approval from others; wanting them to believe in us is sometimes what makes us fail because we can't control what others do or how they think of us or treat us. When you rely on others to support you it can be an unstable crutch or it may carry so much of the weight that you don't make the changes you need because you get comfortable. When we truly believe in ourselves, we are nearly unstoppable! It can take some serious work to get to the point where we stop the self-abuse and start self-care, but once you believe in yourself that's where the magic happens!