Navel piercings + self-love...

Coming up six weeks ago, I got my belly button pierced.

I’ve had varying responses from people, but most commonly, I’ve been asked why – at 44yrs old - I did it now?

I first thought about it at around 18-21. I didn’t, mostly because I was a scaredy cat AND I was playing lots of netball and basketball at that point. Later on into my 20s, I said I would get it done – when I lost weight and my tummy was flat again… Then late 20s – 30s, I was having babies and I just didn’t think about it for a long time.

Just lately I had been talking and thinking about it again. Mostly I would come back to the thought that I needed to get my tummy sorted out first.

It was an underlying belief, from the deepest part of me peaking through, that I wasn’t good enough. The belief that you and I are beautiful, worthy, enough just exactly as we are in the present moment, still hasn’t sunk all the way in, even for me who preaches it.

Guess what, I’m still on this journey with you.

But something shifted in me this summer. We went camping for a week and there were zero mirrors, zero bathroom scales and I ended up giving zero... you get my drift.

We were staying in paradise. It was hot and the lake was at my doorstep. We were with friends and family whom I adore. There was a beautiful 8km track around the lake that I walked/ran daily, we were in and out of the lake all day long and I pretty much lived that week in my bikini. It was so damn liberating. I’ve been since living in the afterglow of that self-love and self-acceptance.

So six weeks ago, I drove to the shop and I finally got my belly button pierced. I did it for me and for the acceptance of my beautiful, stretch marked, soft, sometimes bloated tummy.

It’s another step on MY journey to loving who I am and acknowledging the body I have been blessed with, is worthy and amazing and beautiful - as it is TODAY.

Am I saying that I needed to get my navel pierced in order to love myself? - No, I’m not saying that.

What I am saying, is I stopped putting off doing something I wanted to do for 26yrs because I felt I wasn’t good enough to do it yet.

Maybe that’s something you needed to hear today?

Vans x