3 Self-Love Practices that will up-level your life
When I say “self-love”, sometimes I swear the term itself has become a hallmark holiday, but really in all seriousness, what is “self-love”?
Self-love is an unconditional love and appreciation for all that is. It is loving and accepting the light and the dark in the world in each one of us and our fellow humans. Considering this definition, I’d like to share with you 3 of the most impactful ways to practice self-love.
1. Recognizing you are WHOLE in everyday life. You are not just a part of a human that needs a little bit more of some characteristic to complete your DNA… you are whole just the way you are. A way that I practice this principle is when I am experiencing an emotion (sadness for instance), I consider the polar opposite of that emotion (joy). Without sadness, there would be no joy. Now I can remember that… Next, give yourself time and space to fully experience and embrace each of the emotions…. fully feel the sadness until it feels complete in the moment, forgive yourself if you held any guilt or remorse for feeling that way. Human beings are meant to feel their emotions, it’s what makes us a unique species!
We borrow feelings and experiences from the wholeness of the universe to allow ourselves to grow. Once we are finished with the experience, we can return it to the ‘all’ that is. Holding on to this feeling, resenting this experience, or pushing it down, will keep it trapped inside of us and it will get bigger and bigger and bigger… and well you get the picture!
Nothing is permanent so allow yourself to experience and release, experience and release, experience and release….
2. Journaling. Giving ourselves an outlet to express the wholeness of who we are is a tremendous act in self-love. Remember; we borrow experiences, feelings, and creation from the ALL that there is, nothing is permanently ours….
Here is the tricky part……????
in allowing ourselves to experience it, we have to decide HOW we will experience it.
We have options; we can explore the creation in meditation, we can visualize the experience, we can listen to the experience in stories of our mind, we can journal the experience, or we can act out the experience in the dual dimension reality we live in today.
As we elevate our “own” and the collective consciousness, we have more and more options for ways to experience… and that is a beautiful thing!! We can save the love and compassion for connection with one another and experience all of the fear, hate, lies, betrayals, etc… and even learn to forgive the part of ourselves that have those experiences, and in many, many, other ways. Journaling is one of those ways; familiar to many and easy to execute in privacy. So, open a book, release it all, laugh a little… because that is not who you are, it is simply borrowed until you chose to return it to the WHOLE…
3. Be willing to be at the beginning of something new rather than the end of something already completed !!!
Make ONE CHOICE at the beginning of every day that gets you closer to who you want to be. One thing – that’s it!! Don’t choose for the week if you don’t feel compelled to do so, chose for the moment, the hour, the day. Creating small changes by executing our own power of choice is the only sure way to create habits.
The dominant force or momentum must be greater going towards what you want vs what you want to change to experience a new reality.
Many of us spend a significant amount of time in the middle, on the teeter-totter, where you desire both, so you go back and forth and make a choice in the direction of what you are trying to change and then the next day make a choice in the direction of that which you desire to create.
So many times we fail in meeting our own personal goals because we strive to create unsustainable change or put unrealistic expectations on ourselves. If you want to become more fit, create a goal to increase movement every day or every week… if you want to start a business, start by considering what type of work you love to do and what type of people you want to work with…. If you want to have more healthy relationships in your life, start with practicing self-love ….
Like energy attracts like energy so when it comes to goals, momentum is key. Ride the wave of positive energy and celebrate reaching the small goals along the way as opposed to breaking them and restarting them… that is what leads to discouragement, self-sabotage, and exhaustion.
Lastly, I want to share a TRUTH ……
….the desire for more is core to human reality, so don’t wish it away, embrace the drive and see where the road leads.