Self Love is Not Selfish

In the month of February, I'm focusing on self love and self care -- seems appropriate, right?

I did not always live in self love, and honestly...I still waver and struggle with unconditional love of myself. I have often resided in a place of judgement, unworthiness, and not being enough. I am always striving to please others and live up to an image, instead of my authentic self. What I realized about this space that I created is that it is built by lies. And how did I get here?

I allowed my life to be dictated by lies about who I actually am and I allowed that to stick. I created a story about who I was...and that's where I lived. In the story. But that was not truth.

My friends, there is no love in that. Those negative thoughts ran my life and they stuck and I believed them. Then I got real! I was tired of living in that negative cycle of caring too much about what people thought of me, whether every student loved my cycle classes, or if a client decided to give up on their health journey because it was my fault. I was tired of telling myself I wasn't good at what I do and I needed to find a new career. Those were lies!

I have since created a new cycle, and it's so much prettier on this side. It takes work and it's not easy (and I have YEARS of reprogramming to do), but I'm working at it DAILY and I am WORTHY of this and so are YOU!

Self love is where love BEGINS in your life and it is not selfish. For many years, I believed it was. Come to find out, self love is NECESSARY. A result of self love is a happy, joyful life where you can grow and evolve and create what you desire most. You can show up in love for so many others -- and they do for you as well, because the people around you are a reflection of you. WOW! Read that again.

So how do you start? Write down two things every day you love about yourself. Do not repeat things. Two NEW things every day. Take time for you, like a walk, a bath, a quiet read, a time to journal, a meditation, a tea with a friend...something. EVERY DAY! Ask yourself what you need today, then give it out of love!