Words from a Reader

The “Writing Life Stories” e-mails I receive are such treasures. As soon as I see there is one in my inbox, I read it immediately. I look forward to them and never know how they will touch me. They can be interesting, informative, humorous, and/or touching.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Love Myself Week

In recent weeks, I’ve become a fan of Louise Hay of Hay House Publications. I listen to one of her CDs in my car every day, the one on how to use affirmations. I like affirmations because when I see one on my mirror or hear one or just remember to say one of them, it immediately changes my attitude from negative to positive. Because of some health issues lately, I have had some old nasty negativity slipping into my thoughts. 

One of the things Louise says is that we often look in the mirror but when we do we usually find something we don’t like. We criticize our looks or say mean things to our reflections. I know I do that. 
“Gosh, I need to do something with my hair.”
“If I could only lose weight, I’d look good and feel good again.”
“Boy, old age is creeping up on me.”

Louise says we should say nice things to our reflections in the mirror. We should look at ourselves and give ourselves love. We don’t love ourselves enough. That is why we sometimes feel unloved. If we don’t love ourselves, who will?

I am taking this week to love myself. 
I am telling myself how much I love me. I love my hair, my body, my spirit, my personality and my determination. Instead of berating myself for my failings, I am finding the good in me and showering myself with love. During this week of loving myself, I am not going to take on any difficult projects, do any work that is not fulfilling or interesting. With a world out there full of people who seem to enjoy the pain of others, we must take care to fill our lives with as much compassion for ourselves as we can, pamper ourselves when we can, and appreciate who we are. 

I like something else she says – stress is simply fear of something. When we face our fear and ask ourselves why we are afraid and what we are afraid of, we can usually eliminate the stress. I am working on that one. 

How about you? Do you love yourself? Do you look for your good traits or do you find fault with your efforts? Repeat this several times.  “I am grateful for my body, my health, and for those who love me, including myself.”

4 comments:

  1. Long ago I did those Louise Kay affirmations. It became a habit, and I realized when I read this that I no longer criticize myself the way I did before I started that habit. Now I'll reinforce the way I feel about myself. Congratulations on doing this for yourself, Glenda! :-)

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  2. Wow - I certainly learned something when I read your blog. I too am guilty of looking in the mirror and berating everything about myself. Just look at my recent blog posts about eyebrows and wrinkles. Sad sad sad.
    Thank you Glenda for reminding me that I am worthy of love. I'm going to do what you are doing. Have an entire week of loving myself, doing only things that are fulfilling to me. That will be a switch and I'll have to work at it as it's way out of my comfort zone. I have a chronic illness and I'm sure these positive affirmations will make me feel much better. So appreciate this post. Also, my friend Jill Sanders wrote a book on Kindle titled LOVE YOURSELF MORE: STRESS LESS.
    Check it out! And thanks for this post.

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  3. Thanks, DJan. We all need to reinforce good habits, don't we?
    We need to tell ourselves what we need to hear because we believe what we say to ourselves.

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  4. Barbara, thank you for your comment. Love yourself. It is important.
    I will look for Jill's book. I love her essay on rain on your blog.

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I really appreciate your comments, and I love reading what you say.