Loving Your Self First

We have all heard the saying, “Before you can love anyone else, you need to love yourself first”. But what does “loving yourself first” really mean? How do you put into practice every day the art of loving yourself?

1. Loving yourself is the same as taking care of your Self.

• Take care of yourself the way you take care of others.
• Most of us are not very good at taking care of ourselves and do a much better job at taking care of others.
• When you love your Self you look out for your Self. You open to new experiences but you are also protective, and make sure the people and experiences in your life are good for you.

2. Give yourself generosity of spirit.,

• You are not here to be perfect but to partake in the human adventure.
• You cannot travel this path without making mistakes. There is nothing mistake-free about this human experience.
• Mistakes show us the right way for us. Each mistake says, “Not this, not this”. We learn by knowing where not to go.

 3. Listen to your inner voice by quieting your mind.

• You can ONLY hear your inner voice – the voice that has your best interests at heart – when your mind is quiet.
• The inner voice has a direct connection with the heart.
• When the mind is quiet, the heart opens.

  4. Accept your past – You did the best you could at the time.

• Do not regret the past but learn from it. Sure, we may not do the same dumb stuff again, but now we know better.
• Remember, you do not have to know why something happened for you to accept responsibility for all of your life at this moment.
• If it happened to you, it belongs to you.

  5. Examine your thoughts, feelings and actions; they create your world.

• Take responsibility for what you think and feel. 
• Know that you have a choice of what you want to think about.  You do not have to think about every thought that enters your mind.
• Even if you think and feel in a dysfunctional way but take right action, you will begin to change your course. 

Comments

[Mataya]

Great advice. It's so easy to neglect yourself -- I find myself doing it all the time.