February is the month
when love is in the air, thanks to St Valentine. But here is a
thought for you. When did you last give yourself a Valentine?
That is not as strange
as it may 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 the whole cycle going is
with self love. This does not mean selfishness and introspection. It
means taking time out to truly appreciate all your great qualities,
skills and talents. Love yourself – give yourself a hug.
Many people benefit from this simple change in their approach to love. So many of us
are brought up with a culture where it is considered bad form to put
yourself first, this can severely limit the love that we have to give.
It can also limit your capacity to receive love. If you do not
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, give
freely and project love outwards to others.
A reason why so many people never get to find the one true
love that the Valentines 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 of the others.
Once the issue of
self-esteem is addressed then everything else just falls into place. The process of increased awareness is simple, gradual and very
effective. The biggest payoff 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.
This year treat yourself to a Valentine present instead of waiting to receive one!
