The journey to self-love is an evolving, life long process. I'm reminded of that almost every day. As I work on my own level of self love, I hear the words of Louise L. Hay, "When you really, really love yourself, everything in your life works." Notice she didn't say "Some" things; she said everything.
As I embark upon this continuous journey of learning how to love myself more, I find myself looking for ways to remember that loving myself is a continuous choice I am honored to make. Here are 5 rules of self love that I created to remind myself of that very choice:
Rule #1: I love my flaws because they're part of my brilliance. What makes us unique is also what makes us imperfect. Loving our flaws means we're okay with where we are. Things don't have to be a certain way and we don't have to be a certain kind of person. Right here, right now, exactly where you are, you ARE good enough.
Rule #2: I love my mistakes because they give me permission to grow. Every mistake is an invitation to change. Without the mistake, we could spend years going on living in the lie that we're perfect. Nobody is and every mistake invites us to be MORE of who we already are.
Rule #3: I love where I am because it's exactly where I'm supposed to be. Trusting the process of life is a great way of knowing that where you are is exactly where you need to be. There's peace in that. It allows you to be still even as you move forward.
Rule #4: I love people for who they are because they remind me that we all deserve love simply because... In any moment, we can love people or we can judge them but we can't do both at the same time. Whatever we do to others we are, on some level, doing to ourselves. This rule reminds me that all great things begin and end with love. I can leave criticism and judgment alone because love is what lights the way of change. When I love someone else as they are, it gives me the room to love myself as I am.
Rule #5: I deserve and accept the best now. I don't have to wait to be perfect to deserve what I really, really want. Knowing that there is no order of difficulty in miracles, knowing that nothing is impossible for God, knowing that in a split second, everything could change for the better reminds me that it's not what I do that brings me my highest good but who I am choosing to be as I embrace the good that lies ahead.
