"Every word spoken or thought becomes the story you tell yourself... Every negative thought, every insult, every flaw on repeat in your head is hurting you... Negative self-speak is poisoning your life. Negative thoughts are making it that much harder to be positive... Reprogram your self-talk. Speak kindly. Be loving towards yourself. You are a goddamn Queen."
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Danielle Galvin is taking the social media world by storm with over 44,000 followers on Instagram, 973 YouTube subscribers, 266 "Likes" on Facebook, 146 followers on Twitter, and her own blog. Under the username @chooselifewarrior, Galvin promotes self-love and body positivity by questioning the beauty standards which we place on ourselves. Over the weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to interview Galvin, who shared some of her experiences with disordered eating/distorted body image and how she learned to love herself.
Where are you from? Where did your journey begin?
I am from Cairns, Australia where the Great Barrier Reef is and the beautiful Daintree Rainforest is. My journey to becoming body positive started when I began recovery from an eating disorder. At 18/19-years-old I began seeing a therapist to help me overcome and treat my eating disorder, self-harm and mental health issues. Through my Instagram I started in 2013, I found body positivity, but was working towards body love through my ED recovery prior to this.
When did you begin posting on Instagram and what did you originally post?
I started posting in January of 2013. Originally I simply posted eating disorder recovery content as I was angry that so much pro-eating disorder content was easily accessible on Instagram. It never showed my face until around half way through 2013, and then I found body positive accounts and my recovery was really going smoothly. My account started very private and now is a place that has grown to talk about so many different things -- such as body positivity, mental health, sexual assault awareness, plus size issues and fat activism.
"In body positivity we talk so much about loving our exterior and finding our bodies beautiful, which is extremely important and needed. Yet we can sometimes forget to check in with our whole-selves. Your beauty isn't the best part of you, no matter how beautiful one person is. Your soul, your brain, your body, in a perfect world they would all live in cohesion."
When did the Instagram account take off? You have over 44k followers now! Do you remember a specific post or moment in time when things took off?
For me, unlike some other accounts, I have never gone viral -- it has been a really slow build. Really, really, slowly I have gained a following. I do remember that when I reached 5,000 followers I absolutely kind of had an "OMG" moment! Having people connect and feel accepted is much more important to me though than having a great number of followers. Popularity was never what I wanted to achieve -- connection and support is much more important on my page.
I see you post about your boyfriend a lot! He seems like a really key
component to your life. Can you tell me a little bit about him? How did
you meet?
Cameron and I attended the same high school, but we never were friends. After high school my best friend started dating his best friend, and we became friends. Four years into our friendship we started dating. It definitely felt like the stars aligned and we just realized we had feelings for each other. He is the greatest person I know and is always my best friend before boyfriend. Our strong friendship makes our relationship that much easier. He is so supportive of everything I do and such a kind, beautiful person.
"His love for me made me realize one huge thing -- no matter how much you can hate yourself you'll be so surprised to see just how much someone can love you just as you are. He doesn't define my self-love, but he taught me what loving other people can do for loving yourself."
If you could say anything to yourself at the peak of your disorder, what would you say?
The peak of my eating disorder was the absolute worst time in my life. I definitely at times felt like I should not be alive and thought about ending my life. I don't know how much worse that could get -- suicide was an option for me, and that breaks my heart looking back.
If you could say anything to anyone who is currently at their peak of their disorder or simply just is in a body positivity "funk" what would you say?
I would say reach out and ask for help. So many people avoid professional help because they think they are not 'sick enough' or they don't 'need that much help.' Everyone needs help at times in their lives. There should be no shame seeking help through services available to you! You have nothing to lose by reaching out.
"I had an eating disorder and no transformation picture will ever do justice to the transformation recovery had in my heart & life. I am alive, I want to be alive."
I've been following your posts under your self-love boot camp. Can
you tell me more about this? What is it, when was it founded, and what
would you like to accomplish with it?
My
self-love boot camp is something I cooked up this year because so often do I receive
similar questions from people who follow me. Like, "how can I be more
confident?" "How did you recover?" "How did you start to love yourself?" So I
created my "Chooselifewarrior 21 Day Boot Camp" -- 21 videos for 21 days
accessible for free on my YouTube. It is from my absolute heart covering
topics from self-care, reprogramming negative thoughts,
mindful movement and some daily challenges throughout to practice in
your own time. I picked 21 days from the idea that it takes 21 days to
change a habit. I am not a professional or a self help guru, just a
regular girl who wants to help spark self love.
That's what the videos are meant to do -- help you reflect and possibly
spark your journey. The link for these videos is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw0WIYMbv5RKEnJh0HGaTVNitrQ3F9eBe
Where do you see yourself and the body positive movement in 10 years?
I hope to continue youtubing, blogging and possibly be a motivational speaker. I would love to publish a book and be someone who people are continually inspired and connect with. Personally I just want to be happy -- just happy and content in life.
You can follow Galvin on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook under the handle @chooselifewarrior.
