It is easy to forget to love ourselves. It’s easy to forget to nurture ourselves. It’s easy to forget that if we don’t take care of ourselves, we won’t be able to take care of anyone else.
It’s also easy to get caught up in other people’s opinions of us, to accept stereotypes and generalizations, to let strangers’ opinions control and determine our happiness.
At these times, we need to draw on our Higher Power. We need to remember that Love is the ultimate power and the ultimate gift to give ourselves.
As humans, we are social animals, and that need for attention from other people makes us tend to think we need people to love us. Truthfully, if no one loved us, it would not make us any less loveable. If we are put down because we are women, or gay, or from a certain racial group, or poor, or disabled, or on welfare, or we don’t have a college degree, or because we do have a college degree, or because we are rich, or for whatever reason, it doesn’t matter. We are still loveable.
When all the world seems to turn against us, that is when we most need to remember to love ourselves. We don’t do it by spending tons of money we don’t have. We don’t have to do it by eating everything in sight. We can simply put our arms around ourselves, patting ourselves on the back, saying to ourselves, “I love you and I will take care of you. I will always be here for you no matter what.”
If we believe in a Higher Power, we remember that Love is what guides the universe. We understand that whatever situations we face will only make us stronger and provide the opportunity for us to learn to rely on ourselves and love and appreciate ourselves all the more.
Today, take time to love yourself. Find things about yourself to appreciate—whether it’s your looks, your physique, your intellect, your kind heart, your ability to forgive those who hurt you, your faith in a Higher Power, your artistic abilities, or your refusal to give up. Whatever it is, and I trust if you look hard enough, you’ll find there are many reasons, find reasons to love yourself. You are loveable. It doesn’t matter if anyone else thinks so. The only person you have to live with the rest of your life is yourself so you need to love that person—that should always be your top priority.
Irene Watson, MA, is author of The Sitting Swing: Finding Wisdom to Know the Difference, and co-editor of The Story that Must Be Told: True Tales of Transformation, and Authors Access: 30 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers. She is a workshop leader, managing editor of Reader Views, and president of a non-profit Higher Power Foundation. Irene lives next to Barton Creek in Austin, TX, with her husband Robert.


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