We often spend a lot of time focusing on others around us: family, work or our community. This diverts attention away from ourselves and sometimes if we choose to look inwards we may find that we are not able to say that we love ourselves.

Often disproportionate amounts of time can be spent physically or mentally on:

• judging others
• controlling others’ lives
• tending to others’ needs

This can be justified for practical, health or other reasons but it can come at a cost to ourselves in terms of our physical, emotional and mental health.

Looking after people is a wonderful thing, but does not need to come at a cost to one’s own health.  It is our duty to look after ourselves first before helping others, this includes our own families.  If we spend our lives neglecting ourselves and putting others first we may be jeopardising our own health.

Fit your own oxygen mask first before helping others.  If we cannot breathe how can we help anyone else to live?

Sometimes we can find it easier to look after others more than ourselves. This can be down to the fact that we do not love, and value, ourselves enough.  By focusing our attention on others we can ignore this fact.

Can You Tell Yourself That You Love Yourself? 

For some this can be painfully hard.  If it is hard then the first part is to accept this and understand that it is absolutely okay.  Facing up to, and being aware of this fact is huge in itself.  From here you can start to look at the concept.  There can be many reasons underpinning a lack of self-love and you may choose to look to the external world for help here.

Sometimes it can be due to lack of self-acceptance that you simply are who you are and that you are perfect as you are.

The “I Am” Meditation – A Short, Powerful Way To Help You Love Yourself

This short video offers a meditation that when practised daily can help to open the door towards self-love.

You can begin by practising it for just 3 minutes and then work up to 11 minutes. After a week of practising you may start to notice some small changes in your life such as:

• not taking the comments of others so personally
• feeling more comfortable in your own skin
• being less indecisive about what to wear

Over time this can then be translated into self-love.

Personally this meditation has helped me to feel very comfortable and confident with my own body image and it has also generally helped me to trust myself more. I have watched clients who never believed that they would be able to love themselves, begin to fall in love with themselves after practising this daily for 40 days. I would love to hear what your experiences are after practising this. Please get in touch.

‘Its All About Me’ – Well It Should Be

All of this does not mean that we need to be selfish or egotistical, caring only for ourselves. But it does mean that for a totally fulfilled life it is a good idea to:

• accept ourselves
• grow to love ourselves
• put ourselves first
• reach out to the world and share our love and skills

By doing this the world will throw back this love to us and embrace us with open warm arms.