So much talk this past weekend about the big “V” Day – Valentine’s Day. And we hope you celebrated with loved ones loveonselfof course – a spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, your children, even extended family or friends.

But I want to talk to you about self love. Ok, I can see you rolling your eyes but I’m not just talking about bubble baths and pedicures here.

Self love, true self love, goes way beyond that. 

I’ve learned over the years that self love is a PRACTICE. Like anything, you get better at it at the more you practice.

I’ve also learned that self love is IMPORTANT. You’ve probably heard people say things “You have to love yourself before you can love anybody else”. But what exactly does that mean?

Well, the way I see it, if we don’t love ourselves than it makes it very difficult for us to RECEIVE love. Our “container”, if you will, that holds self love, can become very small if we aren’t consistently doing things to make it bigger. That makes it hard to receive love, give love to others or anything else.

Ok, so if self love isn’t just doing your nails and taking a bath, what is it? While those things can certainly be a part of it, I believe that self love is:

  • Honoring who you are right now
  • Sometimes saying no to things and not over committing
  • Being happy without having a partner
  • Appreciating who we are as a person – the good AND the bad, the pretty AND the ugly; it’s seeing the messy bits as a part of who we are and loving them, not seeing them as faults
  • Not judging or labeling ourselves
  • Not just doing what we’ve been told to do, even though it goes against our bigger dreams and desires
  • It’s being authentic in each moment of the day. Some days you might want to run 10 KM; other days you want to sleep in. Self love is choosing in each moment what you want, without the guilt or negative impressions.

And lastly, self love is just being ok with who you are and knowing that you are pretty great.

The great thing, we can choose to work on self love any time we want to. It’s a big part of most yoga classes, in fact.

Peace and love to you all . . .