With it being February, we all think about LOVE. I thought that it might be a good idea to apply the concept of LOVE to living a healthy life. I don't know that I am a great example of HOW to do things correctly, but, I sure have learned a lot with all the mistakes I have made, so I figure I can talk about it as well as anyone else! So, over the next 4 weeks of February, I am going to talk about ways we need to apply LOVE to our lives in order to be the healthiest version of ourselves.
LOVE YOURSELF
Treat Yourself with Care - If you are a caregiver in general (a mom, a dad, a good son or daughter, a pet parent) then you spend time taking care of someone you love in general. You make sure they have what they need to be happy, healthy and safe. However, how many of us truly look at ourselves with the same eyes that we see our loved ones with? I think if we took the time to make sure we did that, we would treat ourselves so much better! We'd be better about what we eat, drink and do with our spare time. We would give ourselves some slack when we make mistakes, but also hold ourselves to a higher standard in other ways. We'd pay more attention to things that are good or bad for us, we'd make sure we get enough sleep and we would treat ourselves to something special just because we care about ourselves. Maybe it's time we all looked at ourselves with the same eyes of love and make sure we take good care of that person we see in the mirror.
Trust Yourself - Who are the people you trust the most? Your family? Your closest friends? How about those you can count on most of the time? Well, who knows us better than the person who lives in our body, hears all of our thoughts and knows all of our feelings 100% of the time? No one except US. So why is it that we can trust the judgment of even a stranger more than our own judgment at times? Especially when it concerns matters of our own life? Granted, I don't know a lot about a lot of different things, so I wouldn't trust my own judgment on how to rewire a home. But as far as my own PERSON, no one truly knows me like I know me. My husband and my kids know me pretty well, but, none of them know every thought and feeling I have all of the time. Only I do. There comes a point when you need to trust yourself to do the right things for your life. We all have a "tell" inside us when things aren't quite right that tells us to be cautious about something, the thing is, we spend a lot of time tuning that out! How many times have you known in your gut something wasn't right, or you knew what was the right thing to do, but you were unsure and then AFTER THE FACT you say, "Man! I knew that!" but it was too late to act on it. Part of loving yourself is trusting yourself. Put in some faith that you will chose the right things. We believe in those we love--sometimes to a fault--but usually don't give ourselves the same amount of support. It's time you trust in who you are, what you know and your abilities to do what is best for yourself and your life.
Give to Yourself - When we think of Valentine's Day, we are reminded of all of those we love and the things we could give them to show them our love for them. We all feel the gift is probably never enough to really express our love. How often do you truly believe you deserve so much more than you ever give yourself? Do you even think of that? I'm not talking about how you were really good on your diet so you "give yourself" a treat for being good. Sometimes, we are "good to ourselves" as an excuse to do something maybe we shouldn't or to ease guilt about something else. But if we truly loved ourselves as we love others in our lives, we would enjoy the blessings that come our way so much more because we know we have great value. Sometimes others can see our value more than we can. Sometimes there are those who truly are alone in this world and don't have anyone telling them how they love them or value them, but that doesn't give them any less value. We are ALL "fearfully and wonderfully made" regardless if anyone tells us or not. Even those who have done horrible things in their lives, they have/had value, but they never realized the true value in their human lives (or in others) or they would not have done the things that they have done. It's truly a horrible thing when someone doesn't give others or themselves any value at all.
Treat yourself with care, have faith and trust in yourself to do what is right for you and show yourself how much you really do matter--that you are a person of worth and value. If you truly love yourself as you should, loving others will be so much richer and your compassion and forgiveness will spread farther and wider than you can imagine. Your joy will be contagious. So spread it for all to see!
Until Next Week!
Jen Lush--Associate Broker and Mother of Managing Broker
