Valentines day is my favorite holiday. I love all the pink and the pretty things and I love love. Which sounds kinda silly in my head as I am typing, but it is the honest truth, I am a hopeless romantic to the very core. Love is a many splendored thing.
I remember the first time I fell in love. I was 13 and I fell in love with my best friend. It was not a romantic love, but it was deep and strong and intoxicating in a totally plutonic way if that makes any sense. I also remember the day when something my mom had told me about the love we feel for our children really struck me. One day it clicked and it was like a new level of living opened up for me. Ironically, I was loading the washing machine with dirty cloth diapers (a labor of love for sure) and thinking of my sweet 5 month old baby. For some reason that thing my mom had said just popped in my head and stopped me in my tracks, the love I have for my child washed over me in that moment and brought tears of gratitude to my eyes. The love we feel for our children is by far the sweetest (when they are not being assholes).
What about the love we feel for ourselves? We all have very different relationships with ourselves and our bodies. Some maybe don’t put very much thought into it. I tend to think that a lot of us have a constantly running inner dialogue about it, so constant that we don’t even really hear it. Some of the things we tell ourselves might be hurting us, may be stopping us from making better choices in life or succeeding at our efforts. What if we got really quiet on the outside and tuned into that inner dialogue, what would we discover? Would we change anything? I have some experience with this and can definitely say that I could change a few things. When I put the work in and change the dialogue I feel better and make better choices for my body and my spirit.
Self care is vital to our health and wellness and is so often overlooked. So on this day of love I encourage everyone to stop and listen to their inner dialogue, make adjustments where needed and do something extra in the way of self care. Love yourself!
Carry on in health and love ~
Teah
