Loving Yourself

The Power of Self-Talk

Never underestimate the power of how you speak to yourself.  Be thoughtful, be conscientious about what you say to yourself, out loud and in your mind.  Our sub-conscious builds our self-image through our own self-talk.  Others may say what they will, but we are responsible for what we take in, for what we allow to get filtered through.  Do you accept compliments?  Do you shun them?  Do you accept criticism?  Do you shun it? Remember, you’re sub-conscious is listening, so be intentional about what you feed it.   Have a habit of saying mean things to yourself?  Notice when you do it, notice what you say.  It may feel like second nature to you (because you’ve been doing it so long) but never think that calling yourself stupid or a failure…doesn’t sink in, IT DOES.  One huge step in learning to love ourselves is nurturing ourselves through appropriate, positive and helpful self-talk.  Love yourself from the inside out! Start today!

Loving Yourself

April 28th, 2010

Do you love yourself?

Can you say:  ”I love myself”?

Try it - “I love myself”

If this is hard to say, that’s okay.  If you feel silly, that’s okay.  If you don’t think it’s important, think twice.

Learning to love yourself is quite possibly the most powerful thing you will ever do in your life.  No matter where you believe that you come from…or what sustains you, or where all of this life and its energy comes from or is going, loving your soul, your body and your mind, WILL progress you in your life.  You will never know another human being as well as you know yourself.  You will never understand another human being as well as you could understand yourself.  And when we know, understand and love ourselves, we are more able to know, understand and love others. It’s that simple.

I once asked a woman I worked with…who always seemed to be suffering from the fact that she incessantly put others first… if she loved herself.  Actually,  I asked her if she could say “I love myself” and her response was “No Way”.  She said that she could say that she liked herself.  She could say that because she was good to other people, she thought herself a good person, but she could NOT say that she loved herself, NO WAY.

So, for about a month, a couple of times a week, I would ask her…if she could say it yet?  She knew that I would come and ask this question…so she was prepared for it.  Some days, she could say she liked herself and other days, when she was beating herself up…she’d say…”No, it’s a bad day, I can’t say it today”.  She knew inside that she wanted to be able to say it. I told her that it would come…it would take some time, but it would come.

Then one day…when I went to ask…she was all excited and rosy cheeked and she said, “Guess what?”  ”I SAID IT!”  ”I was coming to work and was unlocking the front door to the office, and it just POPPED OUT: I LOVE MYSELF!” I asked her how she felt and she said, “Wonderful, really good and NEW”!

I have heard people say that it’s selfish to love ourselves, but is that true?  How can we ever truly love others when we don’t even love and accept ourselves?

Try to say it today!

Say  -  ”I love myself”.     If you can’t, be gentle with yourself and be patient. Try it everyday.  Make a list of all the good good things about yourself.  If you stumble onto things you don’t like, forgive yourself and work toward loving yourself ANYWAY.  Accept the things about yourself that you may not like.  Release yourself from self-hatred.  What good does it do? NO GOOD.  Make peace with where you are and if you don’t like something that you are presently doing; accept that this is where you are today and work toward becoming the person you want to be.  Remember, things of the past are done, you generally cannot undo them. If you can undo something that is making you dislike or hate yourself, undo it or just STOP doing it.

You are in charge of you!