Nourish Your Heart with Gratitude and Self-Love

Take time right now to think of how you can nourish your heart with gratitude and self-love. You may find that you are always giving to others first. You deserve love.

Welcoming February

If you’re anything like me, you’re happy that January has moved into February. Don’t get me wrong. There was a lot of good stuff in January. I especially loved my Disneyland trip with my kids! As you might have read in my articles, I make a really good little kid and can step into total enthusiasm real easy.

The reason that I like leaving January behind is that it has this “thing” about needing to let go of the old and prepare for the new. All good, of course. But, I for one, can get real bogged down in the lists and the “oh, oh, forgot to do that and didn’t manage that.” It’s pretty easy to get down on yourself in the midst of that mind chatter and forget how awesome you really are.

Dedication to Loving Yourself

So, here comes February — the month for love. It is after all the month that gives us Valentine’s Day, the day that is dedicated to showing our love for the special people in our life. But here’s the clincher: we can’t really love others and be able to fully express that love for someone else if we don’t first love ourselves. That love is all about appreciation for yourself and all that you do, gratitude for your body and spirit that allows you complete expression, and accepting who you are and what you offer in the world.

Louise Hay says it perfectly. “Love is the nourishment that we humans need to fulfill our greatness. As we learn to love ourselves more, we learn to love everyone more. Together we tenderly cultivate an ever more beautiful world.” By the way, you can feed yourself daily with beautiful and meaningful affirmations by going to www.louisehay.com/affirmations.

Gratitude Ritual

So, one of the best ways to discover how great you really are is to have a ritual around gratitude. Because when you’re expressing gratitude you’re discovering how much you really offer and that you are indeed a gift. It’s in that space of reminding yourself of your greatness that you will create your best life. My ritual goes like this. I start every day writing a gratitude and putting it my gratitude jar. I first re-read yesterday’s daily quote on Louise Hay’s daily calendar (thank you to my good friend Ronnie Roche for that annual Christmas gift!) Then I write my gratitude of the day on the back of yesterday’s page and put it into my gratitude jar. I started this last year when my friend and colleague, Cynthia Riggs, was promoting her “Good Things Challenge.” It was a good thing to do last year, so I’m even more committed to following through in 2016. Check it out at www.bizdiva.biz/goodthingschallenge. Discover how good it feels to contemplate gratitude and how it easily feeds into loving yourself.

Self-Help Energy Balancing Creates Appreciation

I continue my ritual with doing self-help energy work which lets my body know how much I appreciate what it does for me and that I’m willing to focus my attention on optimal health and wholeness.

Earlier in the morning I do the Daily Clean Your House Flow so I’ve already helped prepare my body for all that I’m going to ask of it and all that might come at it. Either during the “gratitude ritual” or when I have finished writing and putting it in the jar, I do one or more of these steps to get that feeling set in my being:

Hold your upper arms (to bring in breath and connect with heart and love)
Left hand: move fingers to right elbow (will help let go of old stuff) and
Move right hand to base of right skull (will help be clear and focused)
Left hand: move fingers to outside of right wrist while still holding head (will calm the whole being and allow you to be in the moment)

Give Gratitude for Valentine’s Day

And then, when you’re completely in that space of appreciating and loving you for who you are, you can step into fully loving others. Here’s another idea: instead of a regular Valentine’s Day card for that someone special, how about writing a list of everything you are grateful for in that person? Give that as a special “I love you because” gift. I’m willing to bet that you will bring on some huge smiles. Further, try it with the people in your life who are part of your team, whether it’s in your personal life or your business life. That kind of energy and love is the nourishment that we humans need to fulfill our greatness.

Have fun being the great and awesome you!