Small Acts of Self-Love

I see a lot of stuff on physical health, but I feel like it's important to talk about emotional health too.

One thing that's been wildly praised on Facebook is whenever I talk about self-love. I don't mean pride or conceit, but acceptance and appreciation for oneself.

I've decided that in light of this I will make a weekly devotion/meditation which people can contemplate and put into practice. People can check-in with their thoughts, how well they did implementing the devotion into their weekly life, and give feedback about how each devotion might be improved.

I hope you will join me to help make 2015 the year of encouraging each other to love themselves a little more.

Good idea! I look forward to this!

Each Saturday I will post a devotion/meditation for you to contemplate and put into practice for that week. The new devotion/meditation begins on the next day (Sunday) so you have some time to prepare yourself for it. When I post a new devotion feel free to talk about how the previous week went. If you forgot or it just was too difficult to do feel free to speak about it and then participate in the upcoming week.

Are you ready?

Small Acts of Self-Love #1:

Self-defeat is a huge struggle to overcome. Sometimes our goals and aspirations are ambitious and we know it. Self-defeat is all the emotions and thoughts that you throw at yourself to stop yourself from accomplishing what it is you want to accomplish. Our task is to love ourselves more, so for this week our challenge will be to not say anything negative, degrading, or deprecating about ourselves for a whole week. It will help if you tell a few close friends and family about your goal so they can help encourage you. Remember, this isn't a competition or race, but it is a challenge. To love ourselves we have to recognize the ways we hurt ourselves, the ways we defeat ourselves before we've even begun the day.

I'll be doing each and every one of these with you. My best to you. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.

Midweek check-in, how are you all doing?

I have noticed that there are moments in my day where I do something I shouldn't have done; be it a klutzy move or a mistake I made that makes me feel like beating myself up with an insult. Some days I succeed in stopping myself, other days I let really toxic phrases slip out.

I've had plenty moments of falter through the week so far... but I'm becoming more aware of them as time goes on. I'm going through a challenge right now connected to this one. It's showing me so much about myself as a human being (teaching me more about how people in general - not just me - works in these situations).

Thank you for this Jamie. Let's keep this up.

I've been trying to be more aware of when I am negative toward myself in addition to the 'checking in.' I've realised that there are times when I put myself down very subtly; I don't even realise. It's very telling to that most of these put downs are work related. I definitely need to work on this.

Small Acts of Self-Love End of the Week check-in, how did you all do? What were some pitfalls? What were some victories? Have you become more aware of the times which you feel tempted to say negative things about yourself?

For me personally, I found dwelling on past mistakes and having a strong desire to verbally assault myself for those mistakes.

If you're just joining us, feel free to start with on on Week 2! You may also opt to start with Week 1, that's okay too.

Small Acts of Self-Love #2: Now that we've all become more aware of opportunities for negativity to creep its way into our lives, it's time to practice forgiveness. It is said that forgiving yourself is the hardest type of forgiveness. In order to one day forgive ourselves for the bigger mistakes, let's practice forgiving ourselves for the little things. This week when you find yourself wanting to say something negative about yourself, write it down, and if you do happen to say something negative about yourself write that down too. At the end of each day take a look all the times where you felt like beating yourself up and/or the times that you did then cross each one out saying, "I am more than this. I forgive myself." You may not believe it at first, but sometimes you have put yourself into the right position and your heart will follow. It might help to contemplate the ways in which our negativity is based on how we see ourselves, not necessarily on the way things are in reality.

I realised I'm not quite as self defeating as I think I am... what I said earlier in the week about putting myself down still happens, but I kind of always assumed I did it all the time. Doing yoga everyday has been great for the 'checking in'... yesterday I really felt like I connected with myself... it was nice.
I read an article this week about how mindfulness for 10 minutes a day defeats the purpose of mindfulness, that until we change the way we live, it isn't anything more than a plaster over a wound. Since I started yoga I've found that I am centred more often, and it's easier to me to recognise when I'm having problems so I can correct them. Checking in is a kind of mindfulness and I think a longer term change to thinking about it more often will help solve the 'living it' problem.

Guilt for thinking certain things, assuming certain things, and just feeling a little shameful about other feelings of mine in light of circumstances, feeling that I'm not good enough or worth the time, etc. But I am reminded that what I think and feel is normal, and there is nothing really to be ashamed of about it. I also like to think that maybe I'm not alone with it anyway.

Sorry I didn't post this sooner. I got stuck at work. Feel free to give your input on last week's challenge. I found myself able to keep track of my wrongs but not as easily able to let it go, admit that it's just a little thing, and move on.

Small Acts of Self-Love #3: How we see ourselves is often a means by which self-hatred creeps into our lives. This week, endeavor to wear something that you really like to wear, that makes you feel good. You don't have to wear it in public or show anyone. Just wear it and think about why it is this piece of clothing (or outfit) makes you feel the way it does. This can be a nice shirt, a cute dress, or even a full suit. You decide.