The Time Is Now

“You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy.”
~ Anonymous

Well it is two months into the year and the question I have for you is: how are you doing with staying the course of focusing on your intentions for 2008?

During a month in which I was lavished with much love and appreciation because it happened to be my birthday month, what I have confirmed for myself is that the key to staying aligned with what we most want is the power of love….specifically self love. It is wonderful to receive love generously offered as I had the opportunity to do this month. It is wonderful to be loving to others. But what’s most important is to love the self enough to feel worthy and deserving in order to receive love, to give love and, ultimately, to allow the abundant flow of all that we envision for our lives. Loving the self authentically in this way means that it is truly all about you. You are the alpha and omega for anchoring the true empowerment possible with balanced self love.

How many of you indulge in the “not enough” game?
I am not successful enough.
I am not thin enough.
I am not rich enough.
I am not tall enough.
I am not smart enough.
I am not pretty enough.
I am not handsome enough.
I don’t have enough time, money, health, love.
Etc, etc.
All of these internal self judgments add up to “I don’t have enough or I’m not good enough” in some way and, judging yourself in this way, means you are focusing on what you don’t want rather than what you do want.

“How can the universe bring you anything good if that’s the way you’re talking?  That’s why I like to teach people to love themselves, just to love and adore who you are.”
~ Louise Hay

On the other hand, here’s what happens when you silence the internal judgmental chatter and choose to love yourself and claim your “enoughness”:

~ When you listen to your intuitive knowing from the heart and you are true to yourself, you build your trust muscle and you develop the confidence to stay the course. You discover you have the bandwidth to stay easily focused on your intentions. Rather than depending on successful outcomes to bolster your self esteem, you learn to deeply enjoy the journey of your life… both the good and the challenging. Energetically, no matter what life serves up, you are golden.

~ When you open to honestly love yourself with kindness and understanding for any perceived limitations, you can accept the wholeness of your humanity and your divinity without under- or overestimating yourself. There is no temptation to play it small, compare yourself to others or project limiting beliefs onto others. Pure, unconditional love and abiding joy can flow freely to all in your experience. What goes around comes around so the huge payoff is that self love is very attractive !

~ When you love yourself just as you are, it strengthens your willingness to heal all areas of your life. With an attitude of compassion towards ourselves, we can relax and realize we are all works in progress. When you have the courage to heal yourself, you become a beacon for healing energy attracting amazing people and situations into your experience. Life becomes a wondrous journey of discovery from moment to moment. Heal yourself…heal the world. When you stop holding yourself as deficient in some way, everything is possible and you are solidly in the zip code of miracle consciousness.Here’s an inspired action for nurturing self love recommended by such personal development luminaries as Jack Canfield (author of The Success Principles), Louise Hay (author of You Can Heal Your Life) and Don Miguel Ruiz (author of The Four Agreements):