Happy February!!! For many February is the month of hearts, flowers, candy, and most of all LOVE!!! We have cleared out the clutter, and established our foundation for success! As we continue our twelve month journey of self-discovery and personal development, this month will be dedicated to understanding the meaning of love as it relates to our relationship with others as well as ourselves. When considering the meaning of love, I am consumed with thoughts of God's unconditional love. His grace, mercy, and faithfulness should be our model for loving ourselves and those around us. Often times we enter relationships hoping to fill pieces that are missing within ourselves, only to find that our significant others are unable to fulfill our areas of emptiness, which often leads to feelings of resentment. It's amazing the demands we place upon others to do for us what we have been unsuccessful at doing for ourselves. We desire to be loved unconditionally but we have yet to forgive ourselves for past mistakes, we often settle for mediocrity instead of answering the call that has been purposely placed upon our lives, and we allow the world's negativity to destroy our peace. With so much unforgiveness and lack of peace within ourselves, how is it possible for us to truly love others? As the cliche goes, hurt people, hurt others, and I feel that healed people are able to support others in healing. Let's begin the month of February by exploring the meaning of self-love and spend each day doing something to demonstrate love for ourselves.
What Is Self-Love?
1. Reverance For Your Individuality
- Embrace your uniqueness, you were created with a God-given purpose.
- Identifying and pursuing our life purpose enables us to make a difference in the world through sharing our individual gifts and talents.
2. Recognize Your Value
- Live a life that values who you are as person. Eliminate habits that are toxic to your mind, body, and spirit.
3. Respect Yourself
- Self-Respect is the ability to live our lives in a way that is pleasing and honorable to God without compromise. We can create our own values, and measures of self-respect, but God's standard for living is infallible. The more our lives align with the word of God the more we are able to love ourselves and the world around us.
What will you do to Reverance your individuality, Recognize your value, and show Respect for yourself this week?
Suggestions:
- Spend this week treating yourself the way you expect to be treated by others. Treat yourself with patience, kindness, and forgiveness. Listen to your inner voice of reason in regards to how to proceed in making important decisions.
- Make a list of your personality attributes that you like or dislike. Develop a plan for how to maximize the positives and decrease the negatives.
- Do something each day this week that you enjoy doing with or without another person present. Create an additional list of things you have never tried but feel you may find enjoyable. Tentatively schedule times to pursue these interests throughout the year.
- Write down a list of areas where you are struggling with self-forgiveness.
- Pray for a renewed heart and spirit.
*Remember...The goal of self-discovery and personal development is to become our best selves! Don't forget to continue the positive habits that were developed in January and keep our lives clutter-free as we focus on exploring the meaning of love.*
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I love this post. I like what you said about treating ourselves the way we expect to be treated by others. I remember years ago Dr. Phil said that we teach people how to treat us and I believe that whole-heartedly!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tangie!! I believe the philosophy of teaching people how to treat us as well. People can only treat us the way we allow them to.
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