A friend recently shared a post about 11 ways to live a happier life (by Carrie Brooks – Life Coach) and she mentioned she had difficulty with No 11. Now what was Number 11 and what could possibly be so difficult for this wonderful confident friend of mine? Number 11 was:

To look in the mirror every morning and tell yourself “I Love You”.

I think that my friend is not alone and I believe that this is something we all struggle with at various stages during our life. Let’s take a brief look at some of the lyrics of a song written by Michael Masser & Linda Creed, recorded by George Benson in 1977 and later sang by Whitney Houston in 1986 – The Greatest Love of All:-

Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

So what does this mean exactly? Research says that if we don’t love or like ourselves how can we expect someone else to.

During a four years course to become a homeopath I discovered Louise Hay who is a great advocate of loving and healing yourself; she says that when we really love ourselves everything in our life works.

My take on loving yourself is, if we like and love who we are, then chances are we’ll be comfortable in our own skin. We will be confident, and in turn, that will exuberate and attract like-minded people to us and we will become a magnet. Life will be full of happiness, and we will believe that our dreams can come true. It is about being in touch with who we really are and most definitely not about being selfish or narcissistic.

Deepak Chopra mentions in his book “The Path to Love” that he has met many people waiting for “the one” to show up. The advice he gives is to BE “the one” for YOU. Like attracts like and the more we live our ideal of love, the more our light will draw another light to us.

So how can we love ourselves more? I think it helps to connect with nature and all things beautiful, doing things we enjoy doing, whether that is playing with our children, walking the dog, meeting with friends, spending time with family, taking time out for ourselves or reading a book, generally just being kind to ourselves.

So, if like most of us, you have difficulty with loving yourself, try this for two weeks and I bet you’ll be astonished at the results.

Each morning or evening, look in the mirror and while looking at your reflection say to yourself “I love you”. Remember, be kind and try not to criticize yourself. Think of all the positive things you are going to do or have done during the day.

Examples are:-

• You are beautiful
• I appreciate you
• You deserve a fantastic day

I would love to hear from you and if you have difficulty with “Number 11” and how you feel when you look in the mirror? Do you love yourself?

Loving yourself… does not mean being self-absorbed or narcissistic, or disregarding others. Rather it means welcoming yourself as the most honored guest in your own heart, a guest worthy of respect, a lovable companion.” – Margo Anand.

“Love yourself. Forgive yourself. Be true to yourself. How you treat yourself sets the standard for how others will treat you.”  ― Steve Maraboli.

Wishing all my lovely readers a perfect week full of happiness and self love.