Love Yourself First ...

... because the most important long-lasting relationship you have is your relationship with yourself.

To self-connect, you will first have to become aware of yourself - of all parts, light ánd shadow. Only then can you take the next step: to accept yourself for all that you are - fully and unconditionally. To me, self-acceptance and self-love are one and the same. In order to accept, you have to love. In order to love, you have to accept. So how can you do that? How can you love and accept yourself?

Honestly, I feel it is quite odd that we need to ask this question. As if we need a why and a how when it comes to self-love. Shouldn't it be a given? To love yourself completely? Do we really need help loving ourselves? The sad truth is that many of us do. And so do I. I definitly struggle to love myself unconditionally and I have struggled to do so in the past even more than I do now. And I also think I will continue to struggle in the future, though I feel it is getting less and less difficult to love myself.

An increase in self-awareness always come paired with the discovery of new parts, new layers of ourselves, and thus it requires us to accept this newly discovered part. Every time we meet ourselves, or a new part of ourselves, we are being challenged to love ourselves, again and again, and more deeply every time. Because the deeper we connect to ourselves, the deeper the love will be. It might not be an easy process, but it certainly is a beautiful one. The stronger the self-connection, the greater the love. It is the love for ourselves that comes first, that needs to come first, but with that will also arise a greater love for other beings. Because the closer we get to the core of who we are, the closer we get and feel to all human beings; to all living beings; to God; to Source; to the Universe. And the best part of it all: what we find at the core of all this, is nothing but love.

It is a journey to get there. And let's not focus on the destination, as that might even be too far away from you to even comprehend. The destination is not what matters here, as always, it is the journey that matters. The journey to loving yourself, fully and unconditionally. And you already know that loving yourself will only bring you more of the good things in life.

Which brings us back to the question: How to love yourself first?

I would like to invite you to explore this together with me - to embark on this journey towards self-love together. The month of February will be all about SELF-LOVE for me and for Well Connected Being. This month, I will share practices, activities, and inspiration to help you grow the love for yourself. I will share the things that I am doing and the things that I have learned along the way - both in personal and professional life.

Let's start by making a list of all the things, practices and activities that make you feel good (about yourself). Things that make you feel happy, healthy, powerful, loved, beautiful, amazing, etc. You can choose to divide this up into three categories: 1) body; 2) mind; and 3) soul.

A loving thing for your body could, for example, be to drink 2L of water a day, to eat a nutritious meal, to move your body by doing yoga, going for a walk or a run. A loving thing for your mind could be to read a book, to meditate to give the mind a break, to journal, etc. A loving thing for your soul could be anything that you enjoy doing and that makes you feel happy, regardless of whether that is "good" for the body or mind. So this could be eating a piece of chocolate because it makes you happy, or to watch that show you love. It could also be to take a warm bath, to dance freely, to cuddle with a friend or partner, or to do that one thing that you feel is part of your life's purpose.

Once you've made the list, review it. For each item, write down how many times a day / week / month you usually do this. Then circle the items that you would like to do more of. Over the course of the next 28 days - the month of February - I encourage you to do something (of each categorie) every day, especially those things you would like to do more of. This could be the same items every time, or a different one each day. Whatever works for you :)

If you want to take it a step further: you can make it into a routine: create a short routine of ca. 3 items (one for the body, one for the mind, one for the soul) to do ever day - on a set time. You could incorporate into your morning routine or your evening routine, for example. Or both! Though no need to do too much all at once, baby steps are often the way to go for many of us ;)

I personally have a morning routine that incorporates a few of my self-love practicies, for body, mind, and soul. My intention is to stick to this in the month of February! What acts of self-love will you be doing more of in February? Let me know in the comments!

Much love,

Marije