28 Jul Why you really need to love yourself and what it really means!
Self-love is NOT vanity.
Real happiness is NOT selfishness or narcisism.
But, and this is an important but, we do need to love and care for ourselves before we can love and care for others.
Which is why we were happy when we stumbled upon this article from Tiny Buddha's Banu Sekendur which we think will bring you and all those around you happiness and wellbeing…
“Self-love requires you to be honest about your current choices and thought patterns and undertake new practices that reflect self-worth.” ~Caroline Kirk
If one more person told me to go love myself I was going to levitate into the air and pull one of those impossible martial arts moves from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I was sick of it!
What the heck does loving myself mean? Were they talking about bubble baths, pedicures, and cucumber masks? It turns out there is so much more to self-love than just pampering ourselves. I found this out the hard way.
About a year and a half ago, I almost died after a bad break-up. I had devoted so much of my energy to making the relationship work that I had completely neglected my own needs, and had given away my power and my responsibility for happiness.
As I wrote about here, when I finally developed the courage to end an addictive and painful relationship, I had to live with the effects of lack of self-love.
I struggled to eat, sleep, or continue my daily functioning. I spent every waking hour to myself, trying to understand how and why I had gotten there. I had to know, because whatever it was, if I did not attend to it, this was going to be the end of the road for me. I knew it.
I made mixed media collages, journaled, watched The Notebook five more times, cried, and called up friends to keep me company while I ate my few bites each day.
During this whole time, I found places in my story where I was not present to my own life, my body or my spirit. I was just there. I found the places where I had abandoned myself and then gotten mad at the other person for not meeting my needs.
The truth was, I did not have a big enough inner container to hold the love I so desired even if I received it, because my self-love tank had shrunk down to the size of a bottle cap.
It finally became very clear to me that there was one core reason I had gotten there: I did not know anything about self-love.
This realization launched me into a relentless search for the meaning of self-love, internally and externally.
I found that self-love is a not a destination, it’s a practice. It is like brushing our teeth. Self-love is a foundation on which we build a happy life. Without self-love, we have nowhere to put the love or abundance that comes to us.
Not sure what it looks like to love yourself? Here is what I’ve learned. Self-love is…
1. Choosing ourselves, even if it means upsetting others and not being popular anymore. Even if it means we leave a party before anyone else because we feel tired, overwhelmed, or just plain feel done with the crowd.
2. Telling what is true for us, not swallowing words that express what we truly feel, think, or want to do.
3. Giving our body the nurturing, rest, exercise, and comfort it needs to the best of our ability…
…keep reading the full and original article (but only if you want more happiness!) HERE