Loving yourself goes deeper than just what you do, what you look like or what your strengths and gifts may be.
When you truly love yourself, you value yourself and take pride in who you are as a person.
On the other hand, when we struggle with self-respect, we struggle with core characteristics like integrity, confidence and honesty as well.
Without self-respect, we may feel angry, guilty or battle with a sense of regret.
We may try to blame others for our circumstances or behave poorly because we feel we´re simply unworthy of love or support.
Self-respect Begins Within Tell me, are you guilty of putting the needs of those around you before your own? While this may seem like the right thing to do, fulfilling your own physical and emotional needs first will actually give you more energy and compassion to respect and serve those around you.
Let me share a story with you about my friend, Mary...
Mary loved helping people and she had a good friend she did pretty much everything for.
In fact, all this friend had to do was call and Mary would quickly re-arrange her schedule so that she could help out with whatever was needed.
And while Mary was happy to help, over time, she began feeling frustrated.
Being on-call all the time was wearing her down - to the point that she even dreaded hearing the phone ring.
The more she thought about it, the more she felt she was being taken advantage of.
Her resentment grew.
Before long, she started making excuses and avoiding her friend.
I´m sure you can probably guess the end to this story...
the friendship fell apart.
Why do you think that happened? Mary was trying to bolster her feelings of self-respect and thought she could prove that she deserved respect by putting her friend´s needs before her own.
A better way of doing that would have been for her to look inside and find those positive characteristics she already possessed - her strengths, talents and gifts - that were deserving of the respect she was looking for.
After all, if we don´t respect ourselves, how can we expect respect from others? If Mary had respected herself and her own needs more, she might have been in a position to communicate those feelings with her friend.
Self-respect breeds confidence and with that confidence, Mary would have been able to set boundaries allowing her to help her friend while also helping herself.
Essentially, when you respect yourself, you open the doors to receiving respect from those around you as well.
You Are What You Think Each one of us is unique in our own way.
You have gifts and talents that make you special, and so do I.
The more aware of them we are, the more confident we become.
Avoid focusing on the things you don´t like about yourself - those things matter far less than you may think.
Tell me, do your family and friends love you any less because you have a few pounds too many or you´re not good with computers? Of course not! They respect and love you for who you are - deep down inside.
You need to love yourself the same way, too.
Often we are far too hard on ourselves.
Our expectations are out of this world and the pressure we put ourselves under could bring an elephant to its knees! Be patient with yourself.
Be gentle.
Learn to silence the negative chatter in your mind and choose to see the positive in yourself, in your life and in the world around you.
Respect your body as the home of your mind and spirit, and commit to loving it whole-heartedly.
Together, your mind, body & spirit represent who you truly are.
Make time to get to know that person.
Love and respect yourself.
Once you do, reaching beyond yourself to help fulfill the needs of others is that much more rewarding.