…Loving oneself.
That sounds very trite and possibly even a little sanctimonious! I honestly don’t mean it to be either of these things, I just know it to be true.
I wrote last week about being lucky in life and I can, hand on heart say, that my life turned around when I REALLY learned to Love myself…warts ‘n’ all.
Years ago, I remember walking round the park with the dog, listening to ‘Dark Side of the Light Chasers‘ by Debbie Ford and being fascinated by her view that we could only truly love and accept ourselves when we were willing to embrace those parts we didn’t like so much!
She says “Your life will be transformed when you make peace with your shadow.”
Of course, for those of us who know something about NLP, we already know about Parts Integration and what a powerful impact this can have…and despite this understanding, I still had shadows in my own life – traits I was less than keen on, shall we say!
I had already made great strides with loving myself more than I used to, thanks to another life changing book, “Madly in Love with Me” by Christine Arylo.
Yet with Debbie’s guidance in the audio book…and a lot of dog walking…I did, at last, start to open my heart to myself fully, even those dark recesses that I had tried to ignore for many many years!
Personally, I think learning to Love myself is a lifelong project – it is easy to fall back into habits and listen to those inner chastising voices that berate me when I do something less than helpful.
And that’s OK – life is a journey and so we may as well enjoy it!