True Love Starts Here

Finally I understand the need for taking care of myself. It was always good advice to give someone else. You know that person in your life that beats themselves up and you offer up the usual, "Don't be so hard on yourself. In order to love others you must first love yourself." How many of us have actually realized this in our own life. It is hard to sit down and really think about how you treat yourself. Most of the people I know are more concerned about others. I did not really understand what it meant to "love yourself." "Sure I love myself. God made me and I love God so I automatically love myself." That is the easy part. To really understand I dug a little deeper. Loving yourself actually encompasses a lot more than that. Forgiveness is also a part of the equation and it is this part that is the most difficult to digest. We have to not only be able to forgive others but more importantly recognize when we need to forgive ourselves. Sometimes it's hard not to hold a grudge against ourselves. "If I wasn't so ______ then _________ would not have happened." This bottomless pit is an easy place for me to go to. It was comfortable and I knew what would transpire after I went there. It's hard to climb out of that hole once you are there. Little by little if you try to replace the negative talk with something positive you can turn things around. Yoga helped me do exactly that. The instructors at the studio I go to create a place so that I feel comfortable enough to forgive myself and love myself. They remind me to erase the harmful chatter and fill up that space with light, and warmth and love. I can now love others on an even deeper level because I first love me.