You may have noticed in my last few entries that I am occasionally referring to the concept of self love.  How does that make you feel?  A bit uncomfortable? Unworthy? Or more like:

“hell yeah baby – I’ll have some of that!!”

Hopefully the above, but there are so many people out there struggling with the idea that they need to love themselves.  Bieber aside, I am not talking about narcissism, I am talking about a calm and happy acceptance of yourself, including all the imperfections, blotches and bad hair days.  You need to be your main idol, your prime cheerleader, your number 1.

I am not talking about narcissism, I am talking about a calm and happy acceptance of yourself

There is a great TED talk on this – try and watch if you can – by an American lady named Tracy McMillan who has been married and divorced three times.  She had a very difficult and painful childhood, and believes it wasn’t until she learned to love herself, through richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, that she has been able to truly be happy. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3fIZuW9P_M)

A great person to follow on Instagram/her blog – someone who reminds me regularly about the importance of self love – is the wonderful Catherine @bringingsparkleback.  Follow her and most days you will be reminded that you need to be your own number one fan – not that you should be forgetting: tut tut!

So this week try and do the following:

Activity #5 – Write down all of the things you love about yourself

(Activities 1-4 from previous blogs listed here)

5 minutes

Write down all of the things that you love about yourself – don’t be shy!  This may take longer, especially if you are a Brit, as some sort of genetic programming malfunctioned so that most of our brains do not have the capacity for such immodest behaviour.**

15 minutes

Watch the Tracy McMillan TED talk: ‘The Person You Really Need to Marry’ and then do the same as above. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3fIZuW9P_M

In a few days, we will revisit these… and see what we can add to them.  If you can, share your lists with us on instagram (or Facebook page) tagging @minutesforme using the hashtag #selflove so that we can share and help each other grow in self-confidence, and consequently happiness.

**If after 5 minutes, you are looking at an empty, or almost empty page, and are feeling upset by this then think long and hard about how you need to deal with this.  Low self-esteem in its extremity is considered to be a mental health issue, and in the UK, mind are the main charity for dealing with this sort of mental health problem: http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/self-esteem/ .   There are real-life blogs on this page about how other men and women have coped with this issue.  You may need to speak to your doctor, and consider whether speaking to an alternative professional will help you.  My personal feeling is that there is room in all of our lives for a little bit of therapy, and you need to be confident and strong about pursuing this to help you love yourself even more.  Once again, if you are embarking on a journey, take us with you. Good luck xx

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash