Start Loving Yourself Today
Do you love yourself?
My guess is this might be a concept you've heard of but never really embraced. It seems so "touchy feely" and almost ridiculous at times.
How can I love myself when I know all of my faults and shortcomings?
If I love myself does that mean I ignore the things I consider "wrong" about myself?
Or if I choose to love even those things, does that mean I'm just taking the easy way out and not trying hard enough to become a better me?
What is a better me, anyway?
These are just a few of the questions you may start to grapple with when you start down the path of self-love. And they are all valid and need to be addressed on this journey.
Here's what I've come to believe about self-love at this point in my life.
It's non-negotiable. You are worthy of your own love. You are lovable exactly as you are in this moment. And you are lovable if you decide to change or grow or stay exactly the same.
I started on a new trajectory about eight years ago when I took my first life coaching course. That course led to many others, which taken altogether have completely changed the relationship I have with myself. Yet self-love was one of the last pieces put in place in my life.
I learned early on when I was a little girl at school that who I was wasn't "good enough" to be liked, let alone loved. So I internalized the message that you had to try really, really hard and change yourself if you wanted to be loved.
I know now that was an inaccurate conclusion based on the lack of understanding I had as a child. Yet it was a conclusion I carried around for over fifty years!
It influenced everything I believed and held true about myself. It influenced everything I believed about my (lack of) ability to be loved in a romantic relationship.
I was in a constant state of fight-or-flight thinking I would eventually be discovered to be unlovable by anyone who I had "convinced" to love me.
Beautiful friend, this is not a healthy way to live. But I bet I'm not alone in thinking this way. Maybe you, too, have fallen into this trap of self-disapproval.
So let me perhaps be the first to tell you that you are lovable exactly as you are in this moment and in all moments.
Whether you're at your best or your worst, you are worthy of love.
Whether or not you're trying to make a small or major change in your life, you are worthy of love.
Whether you've been in a romantic relationship or not, you are worthy of love.
Whether you consider yourself a "good person" or not, you are worthy of love.
How do I know this?
Because YOU ARE LOVE!
It's what you're made of, and it must start with you.
If self-love is a new concept for you, I have a couple of questions for you to journal about or meditate on to guide you in this practice.
How can you accept yourself, exactly as you are, today?
How can you upgrade your thoughts about yourself today?
How can you nurture yourself today?
How can you forgive yourself today?
How can you be kind to yourself today?
How can you celebrate yourself today?
How can you love yourself more today?
I hope you give yourself the gift of starting to love yourself, just as you are, today. It will be challenging. And it will be worth it.
You were born for love. You were made from love. And you're worthy of loving yourself today.