“To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don’t wait until you die. If you wait, you die
now. If you love, you live now.” ~Alan Cohen Let me ask you something. If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, would you still be friends with that person? I doubt that. When you fly on an airplane the flight attendant instructs you to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others. Why? Because the flight attendant knows that you can’t save anyone’s life if you yourself are running out of air. The same goes with love. You can’t give away what you don’t have. By loving yourself more and more each day and by accepting yourself fully you will be able to do the same for everyone else. “Friendship with one’s self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
If you haven’t found a way to be at peace with yourself and if you haven’t found a way to be happy on your own chances are that you won’t be happy next to other people either. You can’t expect to get from others what you yourself don’t have to offer. Love yourself and be good to yourself because if you do so the world around you will start mirroring your behavior. Change the thoughts you think and the words you speak. Purify your internal dialogue. Learn to talk to and about yourself in the same way you would talk to and about those you love the most. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Nurture the relationship you have with yourself to make it stronger. Learn to take good care of your mind, body, heart and soul. Meditate, spend time alone, take a walk and explore nature with your senses. Write about your thoughts and feelings, do something you’re passionate about. Go out with your friends, laugh, dance, be silly, be weird, be playful, be childlike. Do all the things that bring you joy and laughter. Treat yourself with kindness, love and compassion and learn to express your gratitude for the many gifts life offered you up until this moment. Take your focus away from those things that cause you to feel pain, stress, anxiety, fear and unhappiness, onto those things that make your heart sing, onto those things that make you happy.