It's funny how the words, "I love you," roll off your tongue so easily when speaking them to
others. When's the last time you said, "I love you" to the image looking back at you in the mirror? If you're like me, (yes... I'm guilty of this too), you haven't done it in ages or ever. Why the hell is it so hard to love ourselves? Instead of doling out compliments and praise for all the great things that we do, we find the smallest spec of negative and hyper focus on that. We should be celebrating the shit out of everyday we get to be on this planet - laughing alongside your teenager (Trust me, you need to celebrate this because it can be a very rare occurrence.), the fact that no one in your care died today (I mean, seriously, yay you - raising humans is not for the faint of heart.) and that everyone ate dinner (Who cares if it was a PB&J on white bread? Oh the horror!). Maybe these daily occurrences don't seem like major life moments, but they make up the majority of our life. By breezing over the good stuff, we lessen the true value these things hold. Since we didn't get 7-year-old Billy to eat a well rounded gourmet four course meal, we feel guilty that he's not getting the nourishment his growing body needs and that we should have done more... we beat ourselves up because we aren't doing enough... and we begin to believe we don't deserve to feel good about who we are because dammit, we should've been trying harder. That's bullshit. This behavior doesn't serve us and must to stop. With a little intentional practice, we can change this bad habit and feel more loved by our biggest fan. Who is that you ask? It's me. It's you. It's time to piss off our inner critic. Since February is considered the month of love, I thought it would be a good time to offer our mighty community with a little self-love challenge. None of the tasks are technically difficult, but maybe a few might make you uncomfortable. But, I'm not here to keep you in your comfort zone - this month we are all about leaning into the hard and loving on ourselves. I've put together a list of 28 tasks for you to knock out during the month of February. They vary in degree of effort and aren't too time consuming. You don't have to do them in order, but I do ask you to complete #1 FIRST and #28 LAST. I won't make you say I love you to the mirror, but it's not a bad idea. I'm not going to let you do this alone – I'm taking my own challenge. Each day I'll post my daily challenge on my Instagram story. I'd love to follow your 28 Day Love Yourself Challenge journey, so post a pic or video in your stories, telling the world how you loved on yourself, tag me (@mytheoryonblooming) and use the hashtag #loveyourselfchallenge. Let's come together, cheer each other on, and be brave enough love ourselves a little bit more. Here's my theory... We can continue to ignore the fact that we need, want and deserve to love ourselves OR we can change our behaviors and begin close the gap to what feels awkward, and start filling our own damn cup. When our cup fills up, the best parts of us begin to spill over to the other parts of our lives. This is the point when we go from living a fine life to living a rich and fulfilling one because everyone around us benefits from the love we have inside of us.
Below is a link to a PDF of the challenge that I created. Don't be afraid to give yourself a little love, and give it a go.
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