Notes On: Rules for confidence

An extract from the zine, which is coming in February !!!

No one is looking at you.

(No, really, they’re not).

Always carry a paperback book. It is the best accessory.

Celebrate other people’s wins. Even if they have something you want. Especially if they have something you want. Success isn’t pie. (There’s enough for everyone).

Give embarrassment a rebrand. It’s the surest way to a funny story.

(See also: resilience).

Allow yourself to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing.

Read that again.

Go to the dentist and get your bloodwork done and take your supplements and invest in a body moisturiser that feels good on your skin. Wear SPF every single day. Drink lots of water. Eat your protein. Confidence comes from looking after yourself, even when it’s boring.

Every once in a while, run as fast as you can down a grassy hill. Hike next to the sea. Your body can do miraculous things.

(Learn to notice what is, instead of what it isn’t).

Make peace with your younger self. She was trying her best.

Learn to make one dish you’re really good at. Serve it at every dinner party.

Host as many as you can.

Drink too much.

Say too much.

Make mistakes.

Hurt people.

Apologise.

Take accountability.

Learn self-compassion.

Re-learn it.

Enter your healthy-girl era.

Meditate.

Cook soup from scratch.

Get up early and feel smug about getting up early.

Get bored and do it all again.

Learn your repeating patterns.

Learn that you are a complex web of all the experiences you’ve ever had and all the bruises you’ve ever cradled and all the sparks that have ever danced in your eyes. You are not – and never will be – perfect. And therein lies your beauty. So

Take pictures and

Take up space and

Take the world and gather it in your arms and learn to let it go because, at the end of the day, when you’re panting dreamy-eyed in the ocean, freezing water up to your nipples, you realise that finally, finally, it doesn’t matter if they’re looking at you or not.

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P. S.

This will be printed in ‘Notes On: Love in the time of Heartache’, which will go on sale in February. It’s a love letter, in the form of a zine, featuring some of my favourite writers and artists from across the internet.

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P.P.S

The zine sold out in a few short weeks. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who ordered one!