Are you a Valentine for Yourself?

It's the time our attention turns to love. Do we have it? Will we meet that special one? Will he/she give me the kind of Valentine's day I want. What does he/she want? Mostly though, our focus is outward.

I'm suggesting that this Valentine's may be the day to look inward first.

Are you a Valentine for yourself? Are you loving yourself in the best way for you? Can you look in the mirror and say, "I love you." to the person looking back at you -- without -- and this is the important part -- hearing the little exceptions or exemptions.

Does it sound something like this "I love you, except for the lines around your eyes." or "I love you, and I'll love you more when you lose 20 lbs." or, "Oh my God, how tired I look."

Those litte comments that come after the first 3 words are what I call "take-aways". They take away from what you said. They discount it, negate it, make it not so.

If you can say "I love you." to yourself and just sparkle back at the person in the mirror, I applaud you.

Make it longer and see how it works -- "I love you and you are my best Valentine." What happens now?

Sometimes we think, I'll love myself when I find love or when someone else loves me enough. If you are waiting for someone else to be your Valentine, to love you so you can love yourslef, it might be a very long wait. The universe seems to mirror us. Love begats love. Being critical seems to bring move of the same.

Probably you've heard the old saying, "The Buck Stops here." I'm changing it to "Loving Starts Here." Right here, in each one of us. The more we love ourselves, the more others are attracted. The energy of love is very magnetic.

How do you love yourself more? First, become aware of the things you are putting in the way of loving yourself -- the criticism, the conditions, the timing. And stop it!

Here's an exercise. Spend 1 minute -- 60 seconds -- looking at yourself silently in the mirror. Where do your thoughts go? What do you say to yourself? What thoughts run through your head? How do you feel? Do you smile at yourself or do you whince and want to look away? Are you admiring or critical? How appreciative are you?

If your thoughts were admiring and appreciative, pat yourself on the back.

If what you heard, felt or noticed was critical, negative, conditional, unappreciative, you may have some work to do. Consider this, when you are critical of yourself, you are often very critical of others. If you are looking for something wrong with someone, they'll usually show it to you. And the energy or criticism attracts that from others toward you. Is this what you want?

Would you like to know how to live your life with more self-compassion and compassion for others. Just say YES, right now? Do you want to know what it feels like to live your life with more compassion? That you are worthy and deserving of doing that? And that's it's safe? Just say YES, right now. Saying YES, is very important -- it asks the universe to let this energy come to you.

ThetaHealing is an excellent way to change the underlying beliefs that cause criticism and self-judgement. If you like to talke about that, email me.