Self Love. It makes most people squirm. We spend so much time trying to serve in our jobs, look after our families, tend to our friends that we forget about the need to love and care for ourselves. But I question how we are supposed to give love if we don’t have any for ourselves? It would be like someone asking you for an orange so they can make orange juice but you not having any. How can you give what you don’t have?
For many years I looked at Self Love as Selfish…I should be looking after others before myself but with time I realized that the more love I gave to myself (and trust me this is something I still work at everyday), the more I could give to others. It is when you truly learn to overcome the challenge of loving yourself that you can learn what true love is and then give it to others without expectation – this is true freedom.
Not only can this exercise give more to others but it can also empower others to love and respect themselves. Leading by example can be the best way to teach. People will start to respect you for the respect you have for yourself and they will also see how you are changing as a result of your new found relationship with…you.
Self Love can lead you to be a better mother/father, daughter/son, lover or friend and what is the downside? Absolutely nothing.
Why not commit today to one act of self love everyday? Perhaps you can…
* Keep a journal where you document the things you love about yourself…
* Commit to allow yourself some ‘<insert your name here> time’ away from the children without being plagued by guilt?
* Spend one hour one day connecting with what makes your heart soar and then decide to reconnect with that through an activity that you can sign up for.
* Spend five minutes in gratitude for your beautiful body (yes it is a beautiful gift) and mind. It truly is a miracle.
It truly is in loving ourselves that we can give more to others and help others to find the love they can have for themselves.
To an Exceptional Existence,
Lou
Twitter: E_Existence
Instragram: Exceptionalexistence
Facebook: FB/aneexistence
