“My first and last love is... Myself....”

“My first and last love is... Myself....”

©       I choose to be happy

©       To be filled with gratitude

©       To live a life of joy and love and success

©       To enjoy positive personal relationships

What is Self Love?

“Love yourself first and everything falls into line.”
Lucille Ball quotes (American radio and motion-picture actress and comedy star, 1911-1989)

 Over the years I have learnt and have come to appreciate myself, now this did not happen overnight. I have found myself consumed with bad relationships (Friends, Family, Colleagues, and Boyfriends). Most of my life, pleasing other people needs came before my own, I thought if their egos are pleased life will be okey dokey!!! . I found myself in numerous relationships for the wrong reasons and ended up settling in ill-fitting ‘partnerships’. This deeply rooted fear and lack of understanding of myself; and those relationships were my whole world; my focus of attention. I would sacrifice my own goals/happiness for other people. And, when those relationships collapsed, so did my sense of self.

Through much introspection, I realized that I didn’t truly love or appreciate myself and had relied on external sources for love and approval. When you do not love yourself and suffer from low self esteem, it is almost impossible to ever reach the potential that you suspect you have.

I decided to change

When I decided to love myself, I accepted that I am responsible for the outcomes that I experience in life and would like myself to shine from living a fulfilling life. I had to overcome my fears of loneliness by finding independence and personal freedom. I decided to take the following few steps:

• Grow Spiritually. Spend time growing spiritually, and loving yourself becomes automatic. I have become more peaceful, connected, kind, loving and compassionate. A mind that grows more beautiful by the day.
• Be Truthful To Yourself. Loving yourself requires you to be truthful about your own feelings. If you are happy, acknowledge the joy. If you are sad, acknowledge the sorrow. When you are truthful about your feelings, you do not try to lie to yourself or seek to bury your negative emotions. Instead, acknowledging what you feel provides a good guide to what your thoughts are. And as we all know, thoughts can be changed, so that healing and self growth can take place.
•  Positive Affirmations Every day. Every morning I wake up with positive affirmations. I recite the following “I love and accept myself completely and unconditionally.”
• Express Gratitude. Express gratitude for the person that you are. For instance, cultivate an appreciation for your strengths and gifts. Also, feel a sense of gratitude that you are alive and well, and fully capable of making a difference in your life.
• Look After My Body. It is important that you strengthen yourself with proper nutrition and regular exercise. Your body is a temple and you should treat it with respect, love and care. It has been found that the lack of self love is often the root causes of conditions like eating disorders, obesity or even terminal diseases.

Authentically Me…

"I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it — I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes.

Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know — but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me.

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me.

I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am me, and I am Okay."

Denis2005 Virginia Satir quotes (American Psychologist and Educator, 1916-1988)

(Source: abundancetapestry.com)