You don’t deserve love.

You are love.

Open your arms to receive love from your higher power and appreciate all of your beautiful qualities:

Your light.

Your sunshine.

Your brightness.

Your shadows.

Your night.

 What is self love?

The real answer to achieving long term self love goes beyond buying things that make you feel good. 

It isn’t the dress that is going to make you feel more loved and worthy.  Neither the makeup that makes you look natural, the facial products to make you look younger, or even forced relationships that take you nowhere.

We need to move past this “barbied” notion of self love.  This concept has been created in a certain way for women to feel more whole.

I mean seriously… Barbie also requires her Ken in order to be complete.

No!

WE need to let go of this notion of adding to ourselves because you know what ladies?

You are enough!

I am not saying that we need to avoid relationships or buy beautiful things but we need to go beyond and understand that when we practise self love authentically we become more aware and intune to our Divine feminine.  This will generate better decisions in our life where we live in harmony and peace with our true self.

You are the love.

You are the compassion.

You are you!

When we develop a true sense of self love and self worth we accept not only our strengths but the “shadows” that we may have been suppressing.

Throughout my spiritual journey, I realised the importance of self love.

Once I realised that I am not only my own Goddess of Love but my own medicine for cultivating a healed heart, I began to live in alignment with my Divine Feminine. I began to honour the woman that I am and realised the beautiful gifts that I have to live with intention.

So here i am now sharing with you my intention. To offer you some practises to help you cultivate self love. To bring your awareness to your loving heart. To help you realise YOU ARE LOVE. To help you realise that YOU ARE ENOUGH.

Stop waiting for someone or something to save you!

You don’t need anyone to tell you your beautiful!

Beautiful woman I see you!

You are doing wonderfully!

10 Powerful ways for Practising Self Love

As you go through these 10 practises, you can choose one that resonates with you or perhaps all of them. Now is the time to tune in to your heart and embrace the Divine Feminine within you.

1. Fill your heart space with love and kindness

Be aware and change the words that fill your head (remember it can be the ego talking). You don’t deserve bad talk to yourself.  

Replace ill words with positive self-talk and other words that are going to inspire you which will positively impact on your life.

Create an inner voice of nurture, kindness and compassion, right now.

Your truth lies in your hearts.

The practise… 

I want you to take the time to sit in silence, without any distractions. This means not filling up your time and space with activities to avoid that “inner voice”.

Be ok with the inner voice that comes up and connect with it. It may make you feel uncomfortable and that’s ok. Sit with that discomfort and tell yourself “I feel uncomfortable or anxious and that is ok.”

Sit with that inner voice and agree to offer it love.

Connect with your heart. You may want to place your hand over your heart, close your eyes and imagine a big light shining down onto your heart.

Watch the light shine into your heart. Breathe in, and as you breathe in, fill your heart space with this shining light and love.

Now in silence with your focus on your heart, What comes up for you?

Have the courage to be in the moment with your heart, regardless if the feeling is “negative” or “positive.” Sit with it, with no judgements. If it feels judgemental this is where you lovingly forgive yourself. For example:

“I forgive myself for being hard on myself.”

“I forgive myself for not being kind to myself.”

Self love requires YOUR WORDS.

Say to yourself…

“Dear Goddess…”

“Dear dancer…”

“Dear beautiful woman…”

Whatever words of love come up for you.

You are doing wonderfully. 

“I am love. I feel love. This is what it feels like to be the love. Just me. That is more than enough. It is everything.”

Smile.

Be in the silence with this feeling.

Know that you are here in this world to speak from your heart without any fear.

Think about what it is that makes you smile from your heart.

What would make you feel in alignment with love and compassion. To live from passion and a nurturing voice.

Give yourself a big, beautiful hug.

Congratulations.

When you are able to tune into your energy of love, you are trusting your voice to speak from your heart, you are giving permission to forgive yourself and others. You are trusting that your intuition will guide you in your world when you feel lost.

You are not just deserving of love…

You are love.

I would love to hear in the comments, what it is that makes you smile from your heart.

2. Speak from your heart

I would say this correlates with the first point by I really wanted to emphasise this point.

Know that what you do is coming from your heart and trust that guidance.

Ladies, we need to stop second guessing ourselves!

It is time to speak from your heart and with no fear.

Why can’t we combine our hearts together with our intellect?

When you make a decision based on your heart or your intuition this does not make you wrong. This is your power!

When you speak from your heart without any fear, your intentions and goals will come from a loving and compassionate place.

Isn’t this the kind of world we all want to live in?

A place where we support one another and encourage one another’s experiences, tools etc. 

3. Breathe into your heart space

Take time to breathe into your heart space and feel the love that you are.

Positive emotions will keep your heart stronger and healthier.

Have a willingness to release whatever is blocking you from living in harmony with the Universe’s, the Divine’s or God’s energy of love.

Make an effort to bring your awareness to not resisting love. Trust that your higher power will offer you loving energy and open your arms to receive it.

Say “YES!”

I want to hear you say this now…

My arms are open to receive your love.

I am love. 

When we can remove all the blocks or barriers to love’s presence, then we can open the pathway to miracles.

3. Letting go

Decide what has a purpose in your life and what doesn’t. If it doesn’t serve a purpose then there is no need to hold onto it anymore.

Girl… it is time to “let go.”

Let go of that person in your life who makes you feel awful about wanting to achieve your goals, that person who requires too much of your energy.

My point is, don’t exert energy on others that don’t deserve it. By placing your energy into high vibrational people that support and empower you, you are preserving your heart.

Remember: Your energy is sacred and only those who genuinely uplift you are worthy of your energy.

4. Set boundaries

This compliments number three that your energy is sacred. But I felt it was important to make this another point.

Not having boundaries is setting yourself up for self destruction.

Boundaries are tied to our self worth.

Set boundaries with people in your personal life to protect your space. This way you are placing guidelines of how you want to be treated.

Having them allows us to express our needs and desires clearly. We have to cultivate the belief within ourselves that we can honour our needs and desires, and be WORTHY of receiving love at the same time.

Within a healthy relationship, these boundaries will be respected and cared for. This also means we become more confident and have a healthier concept of  what the whole self looks like.

Remember saying “no” does not mean you don’t care, it means you are placing kindness, love and nurture to your own needs.

 The power of saying “no”

By saying “no,” or even “I will think about it,” I am putting my needs before others.

I’ve been in many situations where people have asked me to do things for them (for free of course) as a favour or as an opportunity. It was in these moments, that I was not taking into account my feelings and really connecting with my spirit.

Being disconnected with my intuition led me to not trust what I was worthy with my time and energy. So I was giving away  more of me and not being reciprocated, and let me tell you… it was exhausting

Have this in mind beauties. Your energy is always sacred.

5. Make a commitment to write in your journal daily.

Take 5-10 minutes to write down whatever releases from your heart… whatever feeling in that moment. Let the energy out through healthy expressions without fear. Without judgements.

With compassion, say to yourself or write:

“I feel…”

“I forgive myself for…”

“I offer myself loving and kind words of…”

“I am deserving of love because…”

“I am love because…”

“Because I am love, I will share and support from my heart by….”

“My experiences and knowledge are important because…”

Choose one of these or all of them. Follow your heart and let it lead you.

Towards the end to close your journal, write down what it is that would make you smile from your heart today, next week or by the end of the month. 

6. Let go

It is time to let go of what was.

‘What was’, does not serve you anymore other than a learning experience. Rather, it gives you an insight into how your body and mind responded.

Let go of the pain, the fear and the resistance that is holding you back from moving forward to your life filled with happiness and love. 

Remember, whatever happened in the past including mistakes you made, do not define you. They were just projections, fears, behaviours that have been conditioned from past experiences. They are not part of your identity.

7. Retreat and Restore

Consciously take time to rest, restore and listen to your body. Most importantly, not feel bad about it. When we rest, we feel more empowered, clear and connected with ourselves. It allows us to show up in this world as our best version. It allows us to live with creativity.

Where there is death there is life.

Where there is sleep, there is a chance to rejuvenate.

When you think of the cycle of the seasons, it is vital for the trees to shed its leaves and “die” during winter.

Come Spring and Summer, the trees begin to blossom leaves and flowers. Trees are ready to flourish and be the strong homes for life that might occur in the nests upon their branches.

So how does that make us any different right? When we ARE nature also.

Just as nature takes time to restore in order to show up in it’s best form, you also require this rest.

It is not ‘normal’ to be living in this rigid way of life that has been our nom.

Start considering yourself as nature and begin living in harmony with the teachings of Mother Nature.

Some ideas of resting and restoring

Read a book

What is it that makes you feel good?

Is it novels about adventure or love?

Perhaps they are books that guide you in thinking spiritually.

Some inspiring books that may motivate and stimulate you, on your journey of self love and self worth:

• Shakti Rising: Embracing Shadow and Light on the Goddess Path to Wholeness by Chinnaiyan MD, Kavitha M
• Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
• The Gifts of Imperfections by Brene Brown
• The Universe Has Your Back by Gabriel Bernstein

Next on my list is Girl, Stop Apologising 

Have you read any of these?

I would love to know in the comments below what you thought of them or even what you are reading right now that inspires you.

Other practices to inspire you to take time and rest

Write in your journal for 15 minutes a day.

Take a quiet bath with soothing oils such as lavender oil or rose oil.

Surround yourself with the calming energy of candles.

Why not buy yourself some flowers.

There’s something so simple about flowers in your space. For me it puts a genuine smile on my face, it adds colour not only to my apartment but to my heart.

Meditation

A lovely simple meditation for self love, perfect for beginners and advanced meditators alike.

Another option would be this Kundalini Meditation. Mediation fo r self love with this kundalini approach which incporpate specific mudras and energy cnetres from the body to generate the feeling of self affection.

Enjoy.

Related post: How to flourish and be centred

8. Connect with nature

Sit outside and immerse yourself in greenery.

Being surrounded by greenery and immersed in nature is the healing tool that activates a health heart.

Think about when you go for a walk along the beach or a beautiful hike through the national parks or rainforest.

How does it make you feel?

What do you notice?

It awakens the innermost feelings of happiness, peace, tranquillity.

It is the smell of freshly cut grass, the colours of the birds, the sound of the waves caressing the sand or the way the Eucalyptus tree stands so tall and proud.

When we connect with nature, we take in all of nature’s beauty. We detach from our ego and concerns as we realise we are actually part of something larger.

Naturalist John Muir once said,

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”

So next time you surround yourself by greenery, embrace all of it’s beauty. Allow the calming colours of nature to open up your heart. Accept the love of nature through its richness and magnificence.

Nature is our healer.

 9. Express Gratitude

We hear this all the time right?

“Show gratitude.”

“Be grateful for what you have.”

I actually think this harder than it sounds even if it is obvious.

But…

Cultivating gratitude opens the door to relationships and enhances empathy. The more you anchor your awareness in gratitude, into your appreciation, the more the Universe will appear and offer you things to appreciate. 

Gratitude helps to recognise our gifts to the world, our inner beauty, skills, achievements and what they are bringing to the world. We can notice how our intentions are serving the world.

The practice

In your journal, take the time each day (it could be the moment you wake up or before you go to sleep) to write down three things you are grateful for.

It does not have to be anything crazy or monumental, this is about appreciating and bringing your awareness to even the simplest aspects of your life.

Furthermore, reflect on the difficult situations that have occured today or perhaps in the past month etc. Here you will realise the learning experience and how they shaped you as a person today, in this present moment.  

10. Connect with your body through dance

DANCE

We dance to heal.

We dance to connect with our true essence.

We dance to express ourselves, in ways that our words or voice cannot.

We dance by listening to our heart.

We dance to feel joy, love and free.

We dance to balance our feminine and masculine energies.

As a (late bloomer) dancer myself, I know for a fact that…

Dance is an essential part of your journey to self love. 

The practise: Dance with the Divine Feminine

This is just a little guide for you if you require. There is no right or wrong here.  Just let the sensuality and creativity of the Divine feminine come alive through your body.

Choose a song to inspire you.

Close your eyes, feel the music, the rhythm.

Let your hips move in the direction your heart desires, move your arms and continue moving, bringing your awareness to your body.

Be present.

It is time to explore your sensual side, with no judgements. Ladies… we have had enough of hiding behind our sexuality.

If you have a mirror, watch your movements, with no judgements. Smile.

Connect with the environment around you and feel your body moving through your emotions. Offer yourself love and permission to move in ways that make you feel sexy, empowered and beautiful. 

Living with a Balanced heart

When you engage in feminine rituals for self love, you are being invited to being your own goddess of love. You are bringing yourself back to your spiritual connection, back to living with Divine love, with empathy and the Divine Feminine.

Living from our heart, our heart energy is opened and balanced.  We can see with clarity and position ourselves in any situation that embraces love.

Authentic love goes beyond being in a romantic relationship, it surpasses the limitation of the ego and personal identity. 

When we cultivate self love we develop certain abilities, such as compassion and empathy for “human beings” in order to understand their personal journey without any judgement. We also become more centred in our life’s purpose and values. We begin living with intention.  

When we truly realise we are love, we stop  trying to prove we are deserving of love or good enough to receive. 

You notice you are enough.

You are the love.

Make an effort to not resist love. Trust that your Divine Feminine will always be there with loving energy to guide you.