To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance. = Oscar Wilde
We all know Valentines Day is a day of love. On that special day we all go out of our way to show others how much we love them. We send flowers, candy, make special dinners or buy expensive gifts all in the name of love. Yet when it comes to loving ourselves and showing ourselves that love, we don’t do anything. We expect others to show us the love that we crave but we don’t expect anything from ourselves. We make everyone else responsible for making us feel loved. But we don’t hold ourselves to that responsibility. As if we are not responsible for that. We are. Loving yourself is the greatest gift we can give to ourselves and everyone in our lives.
When we love ourselves we take better care of our bodies, We eat better food and get plenty of exercise. We don’t abuse it with substances or overeating or lack of movement, etc. That means living longer and healthier lives.
When we love ourselves we allow ourselves to enjoy life in the present moment. Instead of feeling like we have to do certain things in our life before we can take pleasure for ourselves with self-care things like taking a nap when we need one or saying no to projects you know in our heart we don’t want to do and yes to the things that make our heart sing.
When we love ourselves we’re more forgiving of our mistakes and not criticizing ourselves endlessly. Mistakes can be powerful lessons in disguise and we should honor and love them for the gift that they bring our lives. That helps us be more understanding and forgiving of others because we know they are going through their own lessons.
We’ve all heard the saying “give and you shall receive”. Give yourself love and you shall receive all of your love. And when you feel loved you have more love to give to others.
Learning to love myself is an ongoing adventure. I can’t say that I love everything about myself but I can say that I’m liking everything about myself. And that opens up the path to loving myself. Being grateful for the love that created me helps me remember that I am loved and that we all want and need love. I also learned that I shouldn’t expect others to love me at certain level if I can’t even love myself to that level. That’s not fair to them or me. Just like choosing happiness is a choice I believe that loving yourself is too. Or maybe it’s just easier for me to do if I feel like it’s a choice. That’s how I do it, one loving choice at a time.
You Yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. = Buddha
Please leave me a comment below and share the ways you show yourself love.
Flourishing 