Happy Friday! I love being here with you, and I'm so excited to talk about what it means to love yourself first. 💜
I've been reading the book Madly in Love with ME: The Daring Adventure of Becoming Your Own Best Friend, and in this book, Christine Arylo teaches the importance of loving yourself first so that you can love others.
You've probably heard that "you can't pour from an empty cup", and it's so true!
When you're running on empty, you have nothing to give.
In fact, you need other people to help "push" you until you can make it to the next gas station.
Many of us are taught to sacrifice our own needs for the needs of others, but you can't do that for very long.
For this reason, the flight attendant instructs you to put on your own oxygen mask before you try to help others.
You can't stay alive very long to help others if you're not getting oxygen yourself.
Ask my Grandma.
She decided to end her own life when I was a baby, because she felt abandoned and unloved.
If only she would have known that it was okay for her to love herself instead of constantly meeting everyone else's needs and trying to gain the approval and support of others.
This is why I constantly talk about loving yourself and doing what you love.
It's so important for your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Everyone has their own definition of what it means to love themselves.
I encourage you to decide what it means to you.
When I think about loving myself, I like to define it as the amount of happiness that I'm willing to allow myself to experience.
Am I taking time every day to do something that I love?
Am I taking time to fill my own cup so that I can be a loving presence in the lives of my family and friends?
A lot of us think that we'll become narcissists if we focus on loving ourselves more, but narcissism is actually a lack of love for oneself.
Being a narcissist means living as an empty cup with a hole in the bottom expecting everyone else to love you because you don't love yourself.
When you take time to love yourself and do the things that bring you joy, you want to share that love with others.
You want to be a blessing.
If you have a desire to love the people in your life more, I encourage you to ask yourself, "What would I love to do today?"
Sneak things that you love into the cracks of your day.
Be nicer to yourself.
Pretend like you're talking to the 3-year-old version of you.
How would you talk to this sweet little one who just wants to feel heard, seen, and loved?
You are this tender little one inside, and you deserve so much love!
You deserve to be happy.
Everyone deserves to be happy.
You will make the greatest difference in the world when you choose love and joy for yourself first.
Everyone around you will receive the overflow.
Much love to you,
Amber
P.s. Madly in Love with ME has so many fun tools, affirmations, and exercises that will stretch you out of your comfort zone to help you increase your feelings of worthiness and self-love. You can buy the book here if you would like to gift me with a small commission at no extra cost to you. I am an Amazon affiliate who only recommends books and personal development products that I personally own and love. ❤️
If you missed my letter Be LOVE, you can find it here.
You can read my next letter Letting Go of Control here.
You can get the first 3 chapters of my book for free here.