What Will You Regret?

This passage from author, activist and wise woman Anne Lamott has long resonated with me:

“Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you’re 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn’t go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It’s going to break your heart. Don’t let this happen.”

In the past, I’ve shared how I let my so-called inadequacies and imperfections stop me from fully living.

I let the size of my body dictate the size of my life.

While understandable given the weight-stigmatizing world we live in, it breaks my heart when I think about how much of our life we waste hiding out, berating ourselves for not having the “right body” and obsessing about how to fix it.

I often wonder, if we weren’t thinking about this, what would we be thinking about?

Where would we be putting all our time and energy?

How different would our lives be?

How different would the world be?

My highest intention is to help end all this needless suffering so none of us regrets not going swimming.

If you fear you may regret all the things you didn't do because you were taught your body wasn't good enough, I encourage you to get support.

Life is truly too short to let your body size dictate the size of your life.