I am officially 10 weeks postpartum with Abigail Grace and want to start this by saying that I am so incredibly grateful for the gift of having carried and delivered her; she is truly a blessing to us.

But, I’m going to be totally honest here, this postpartum-body phase is hard. Really, truly hard. I’ve had work events, personal engagements, and even photoshoots three weeks after giving birth where I’m just praying the Spanx I managed to wiggle into do their job and don’t pop open.

I’ve struggled way more than I was prepared for. Everyone has been so incredibly kind and said so many positive things (which I appreciate more than I could ever put into words) but, I’ve been really beating myself up over my body. Even though I know that my body just did this crazy and amazing thing — I’ve been making an extra effort to “get it back together.” I’ve been pushing myself at the gym, and just truly trying to live a healthy lifestyle so I can be my best self for my family.

I watched The Help for the first time all the way through the other night (I know, I am very late to the party on this one), and what stuck with me the most was when the maid, Aibileen, would repeat these words of affirmation to the little girl every morning: “you is kind, you is smart, you is important.” At no point in the movie does she look at herself and repeat those same. words. And the thought of that empowered me — we are all in our different seasons (sometimes we carry a few more pounds or burdens or stress) but every day we should tell ourselves that we are beautiful, kind, smart, and important.