This is the month when love is in the air, thanks to Saint Valentine. But here is a thought for you. When did you last give yourself a Valentine ?
This is not as strange as it might seem. As anyone who knows true love will tell you, the more love that you give, the more you receive. This starts an amazing circle of ever-increasing love, which makes your eyes shine; your energy level rises and improves every aspect of your life.
The place to start this whole cycle going is with self-love. This doesn’t mean selfishness and introspection. It means taking time out to truly appreciate all your great qualities, skills and talents.
Many people benefit from this simple change to their approach to love. So many of us are brought up in a culture where it is considered bad form to put yourself first, we severely limit the love that we have to give.
If you don’t love yourself, you may feel that you are unlovable by someone else. At best, this can make you doubt any expressions of love that you receive. At worst, it can even make you repel those who want to love you and that can result in the collapse of a relationship.
Self-love is not the same as selfishness. It is the ability to acknowledge all your good points instead of a continual focus on your faults. It means looking into the mirror and seeing a person of great potential. When you can do this, you can look the world in the eye, you can give freely and you can project love outwards to others.
The reason so many people never get to find the one true love that the Valentine’s cards talk about is because the whole idea of self-love is alien to them. If they think about it as self-esteem, then it becomes more acceptable. Every truly happy and successful person has high self-esteem. This is not the same as arrogance or conceit; it is about giving as much credibility to your positive qualities as you do to all the others.
Once you have addressed the issue of self-esteem, then everything else just falls into place. The process of increased awareness is simple, gradual and very effective. The biggest pay-off is that, when you have done it once, you have it for all time. Then you become truly aware that you can be, do or have whatever you want in life – and that includes love.
We are all born with a good awareness of ourselves. What subsequently happens is that we remember all the negative things that others tell us about ourselves and these can swamp our opinions about the good qualities that we have. Decide to base your impressions of self on what you truly know to be true instead of the opinions of others and you are well on the way to building up that never-ending store of love that is your birthright.
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