When I read this article last week on CNN’s website on the subject of how bad Instagram is terms of the mental health of young people, I was shocked. It seems that all those filters and edited photos just make people more insecure. This really hit home for me. What do people think of my posts? Do they derive energy from them? Am I doing enough to show who I really am? Just like everyone else, I have my insecurities too. But I embrace them! And I started doing that nine years ago.

Photo: Brussels Vegan

When I was about 20, I didn’t feel great about myself. I felt a certain heaviness and I lived for others. I didn’t take responsibility for my own life. I didn’t know how. I was too dependent upon everyone around me. Even though things probably looked okay from the outside, I wasn’t happy. So, I stepped out of my comfort zone and read books like A New Earth and The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I took acting lessons, travelled on my own and started my own business. All of these things gave me so much strength that I’m now able to see through all of those filters. I’m not all the way there yet and some of those insecurities have stuck around, but over the years, little by little, some of the layers have fallen away and I’m closer and closer to being my true self. Everything takes time.

Dear Powerfoodies, I’m not perfect. And I will never be perfect. This is what drives me to achieve more than what I’ve already achieved. Be critical of yourself, but not too critical. Listen to yourself and ask yourself the question, who am I? Try to answer that. You are who you are and, like everyone else, you are UNIQUE.

Love,
Rens