Say Yes to Less: Act Free First

The freedom you want to feel comes from the freedom you begin to live.

You go to the beach with your family and friends, and wish you felt free in your bathing suit.

You try to push the thoughts away.
You scold yourself for being distracted by shame.
Then you scold yourself for not taking better care of your body.
Then you scold yourself for shaming yourself.

Eventually, you realize: this isn’t working. You don’t feel free.

Or maybe it’s the opposite. You have done the work. You’ve trained. You’ve denied. You’ve pushed. You’ve prepped. You’ve followed the plan. And you put on the bathing suit…

Only to find: you still feel trapped.
There’s always something else to fix.
The physical fruit of your labor has left you hungry.
Empty.
Still not free.

This is the part of the summer story no one talks about.

We think freedom is a feeling.
We think it comes when we finally like what we see.
We think it’s a prize for good behavior.
But real, lasting freedom starts somewhere else.

Freedom starts with truth.

Truth about your body.
Truth about your story.
Truth about your identity.
Truth about your purpose.
Truth about the One who made you.

Truth like:
You are not a project to perfect.
You are not a before-and-after.
You are not behind.
You are already good because God made you good.
(Genesis 1 says so.)

And the wild part?
When you start believing that—really believing it—your body can begin to feel like a home again.
The feelings follow the knowing.
The freedom you want to feel comes from the freedom you begin to live.

You stop punishing your body.
You bless it.
You nourish it without conditions.
You speak life over it.
You let it rest.
You let it be.

That’s what Breaking Free from Body Shame was always about.
And that’s what this Yes to Less summer is about, too.

Saying yes to less shame.
Less pressure.
Less urgency to “fix” what was never broken.
Less buying into the lie that freedom is found on the other side of achievement.

We’re saying yes to less so we can say yes to freedom.

Here’s what I want for you this summer:

• To put on the bathing suit and bless your body in it

• To walk in truth, even if your feelings need time to catch up

• To live like you’re free, because in Christ, you are.
  

I’m hosting a webinar for paid subscribers of the Fully Awake Women’s Club at 12pm EST on July 2nd called “Shorts and Sleeves”.

So many women get tripped up by not only their arms and legs being exposed, but also just by the idea of BEING SEEN.

So let’s dig in together.
Let’s say yes to less shame.
Let’s act as free as we are.
It’s time to feel at home in your body.

With you,
Jess