Self Love, A Daily Ritual

Often we think of self-love as a simple "I love myself" attitude. Perhaps this seems like a "selfish" way of being, but I would like to inspire a different thought toward our self-love.

Let us begin with a simple awareness: when we choose to love ourselves, we begin to love others fully and easily.

How do we do this if our inner dialogue is often, "not good enough," "can't possibly," or better yet, "why should I have this, what about them?"

Allow my insight to enlighten.

Many years now I have practiced the art of self love through a practice known to me as the "mirror test". Now with the mirror test, I look into my own eyes, (it's typically when the not so great dialogue begins to rear it's ugly head) and I begin to say through the noise, "I love you".

I do this silently, yet within my mind.

When the thoughts begin to well up of reasons why I possibly should not love myself, I continue by turning to the not so great parts of me and share a loving thought to it. For example, sometimes I feel impatient - "I love you, impatience" - perhaps I feel lacking in my ability "I love you, the place where I feel I lack".

These small gestures may seem unnecessary or odd, but truly they make a difference within our mind. We begin to love not only what we deem to be good about ourselves, but also what we deem bad. This way we are opening up ourselves to the possibility of full self love.

Share below with us what may have showed up when you attempted the mirror test.

The more we share with one another the happier we'll be.