HOF’21 (8): My Self Love Journey ft Olivia Lucie Blake

Annyeong!!!!

Today we’re talking about something that is very dear to me. It’s something that I think should be talked about more often than now and one of the reasons I appreciate people like BTS, Selena Gomez, Zendaya, Lizzo and many others that use their platforms to spread such message.

Infact, recently

I’ve grown to fall in love with the subject itself and of course no one is perfect, even Kim Seokjin who compliments his features more than anyone I’ve ever known is still on his journey for self love. I don’t know if there’s an end to this journey where someone can say, “Yes, I love myself through and through” but I don’t think the beauty of it all is in reaching the end but in the process.

We have an amazing and beautiful guest, Olivia, here today to talk about her own journey of self love. I love her blog so much cause of the positive aura around it. I really hope you enjoy our interview!

Now, shall we?

Hi Olivia, how’re you? Please tell us how you feel in this moment.

Hello! I am doing well thank you, and hope you are too. In this moment I am feeling a little sleepy. I just started my day after eating breakfast. I feel ready and content though. Recently, I have felt so thankful and grateful to be where I am at in life.

I was inspired to interview you after reading your last post, “3 Things I have learnt about myself in 2021”. One of the things you mentioned is “Your beauty comes from within first”. Can you enlighten us more on how you came to that realization?

Honestly, it has taken me so many years to get to this point. I’m nearly 27, and I feel like it will take even longer to truly feel content in who I am. Over the last 7 months I have really done a whole transformation of myself. Not only losing weight but discovering who I am. It’s really surprising to me how people change the way they are towards you when you lose weight. It’s almost like people are nicer to you. It feels so off to me. It’s crazy how people have treated me so differently since changing. When really, they should have liked/loved me for who I am. 

That’s what really made me realise that life is about who people are and whats within. When we leave this earth, we won’t be remembered for how we looked and how slim or big our bodies were. We will be remembered for the good we did. How we treated people and what we did for the world. And thats when I realised that the beauty of humans comes from the inside.

Loving yourself is truly important but that journey can be quite rocky and even almost hopeless, especially in a generation where so many “beauty standards” are being forced in our faces. How are you able to deal with that?

Honestly comparison is a really hard thing to overcome. Especially when social media are just highlight reels of peoples lives. We only ever see the good. We don’t ever show the bad, naturally. Why would we? But, I think that is so damaging for so many reasons. It makes others feel like their lives aren’t as good and it makes them feel inferior.

The way I deal with it is to only follow people on social media who are empowering and good for me. Likeminded individuals who bring something to my timeline and feeds. I am also aware of what media I consume, even down to what Youtube videos i choose to watch. Being conscious of what you let yourself consume can really help you to get rid of those negative feelings towards yourself.

Earlier this year, you wrote a post on “Why Body Positivity is important ”, can you tell us a bit more on your take on body positivity? I’m sure you’ve gained more insight these past months.

For me, body positvitiy was a movement that was created for all types of bodies to be celebrated. And to allow there to be freedom of any body to be celebrated. Not just the bodies deemed beautiful and acceptable by society. Body positivity to me is wearing the clothes I feel most comfortable in. It’s embracing and loving my body in all life stages. My body didn’t look like it did 10 years ago, and I am sure in 10 years time it wont look like it does now either.

Years ago, I was so insecure in my body and who I was. I was worried others would judge me on my size and weight and make comments about my body not being fit to wear the clothes I wanted to. Now that I have a new found respect for myself and for my body, I could care less what others think about my fashion choices. Or any of my choices regarding my body. Its my body!

What is still your biggest struggle on your body positivity and self love journey?

Since losing alot of weight, I have really struggled with body dysmorphia. When I look at myself in the mirror I still think that I look the same as I did before. And I know its all in my head, but its like my brain hasnt caught up with what it sees staring back in the mirror. There are times and I have glimpes of what my body actually looks like, but then it goes back to what i saw before. 

It’s a struggle and it can be discouraging. But I am learning to see myself for who I am, rather than what I look like from the outside. Self love and learning to accept your body can be really difficult, especially when society tells you that your body type isn’t what others find attractive and beautiful. Its like trying to swim up stream.

For anyone just beginning their journey or they want to but don’t know where to begin, do you have any tips or advice to give?

Honestly, just start. Positive affirmations everyday – “You’re beautiful, You’re loved, You’re accepted.” Tell yourself positive things everyday. Change your inner dialogue and turn it into a positive voice, with positive words. Only you can change how you see yourself. Wear the clothes you want to wear. Don’t worry about clothing sizes. Clothes are supposed to fit your body, your body was not made to fit clothing. If you feel good in it, wear it.

Follow positive, encouraging people on social media. Spend more time being present.

Thats my advice to you.

Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview, Olivia. I hope you had a lovely time answering these questions!

Thank you so much for having me. I really loved all of these questions 🙂 I hope your readers enjoys the responses.

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Need I say how much I love every one of her responses. I’m really happy about this feature! Everyone make sure to check out Olivia’s blog, her site is amazing and I love how simple and organized it is! I think I need a lesson from her😭

Alright everyone, I really hope you enjoyed this post! It’s been a while since I featured someone here so this felt very nice. Please do let me know what you think in the comments!

Love y’all 🤍🤍

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