Loving the Lady Inside You

“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”

― Pema Chödrön

You know it and I know it.

Taking care of and loving the lady inside us, this lady that makes us who we are and pushes us to do great things, is important - and you got this down pact.

Right.

At the same time, it’s also important to know the difference between "self-love" and "self-obsession."

When you love yourself it means you accept yourself as you are and you agree to love yourself, flaws and all.

When you love yourself, you act nice to your soul and encourage it. You stop running with scissors. (sometimes)

On the other hand,

Self-obsession, drives you to compare yourself to other people.

It makes you try to prove that you are better than everybody else in all areas of your life.

Self-obsession makes you run a tiring race by keeping up with the Joneses. Better yet, beating the Joneses. It drains all your energy, develops negative emotions inside you against other people, build up toxic beliefs, thoughts, and alienate you from others.

There are a number of ways to love yourself that don’t send you down the road of self-obsession. These include engaging in positive activities that attract positivity in your life. These constructive powers seep into your soul and your mind and can help you move mountains.

Some examples of these activities are:

•  Exercise
•  Meditation
•  Adopting a positive mindset 

But...

“Sometimes expressing your love is as important as loving.”

Here are 4 of my favorite ways to express love for my body and soul.

1. Communicate with your soul by writing or speaking. Confront the parts of yourself that you are trying to ignore, reject or hide.  The part of yourself you keep in the dark. Show yourself self love and acceptance by bringing this part front and center. 

You can easily speak to your soul by standing in front of a mirror and talking to yourself. If you’ve faced any failure or stressful situation, seek advice from yourself about it. Reply to your real self as if your spirit is answering to your questions. This may be weird or uncomfortable at first but just like anything, it will get easy with practice.           

If your thinking man, she crazy. I’m not feeling that, you can also write to yourself in a blog, write in a diary, journal or Vlog (video blog).  The key is to have that heart to heart with yourself that you have been avoiding. 

Keeping it real, it’s easy to focus on the nice parts of self love, no one wants to focus on the hard, ugly parts of self love. Yet here is where a lot of the healing happens.

On the other hand, Take some time from your hectic daily routine and talk to yourself about the achievements of that day. Celebrate the wins, big and small.  I know it sounds crazy, but it really works! 

2. Find inspiring quotes on loving yourself and place them around your room and workplace. The following quote is attached to my mirror, with my name at the beginning:

This serves as a cool reminder. I see the quote every morning while getting ready for work, and it sits in the back of my head throughout the day as constant motivation to take care of myself.

3. Accept yourself just the way you are. The world is a cruel place to live in. People will judge you for being imperfect, but everyone is.  Remind yourself that you are a divine creation. A child of God. Keep showing up for yourself.

4. Be kind to your body and soul. Practice things that are good for your body, such as exercise and healthy eating, and things that are good for your soul,

like faith, meditation or prayer time.

As David Goggins will say:

“I train my mind, body, spirit as one, so I can handle what life throws at me.”

You are responsible for showing yourself love. In order to move up you got to move through.  It is easy to focus on the nice parts of self love - the manicure, lashes, hair appointments and the long baths but is necessary to focus on the hard parts as well. Nurture the lady inside, and she will reward you by showing up and showing out in a good way.