Loving Yourself

Hey Beautiful--how much do you love yourself? Seriously...How. Much. Do. You. LOVE. Yourself? Many of us might fall into a rehearsed pseudo-confident, "I love me!!" full of the obligatory neck roll or hand on the hip to punctuate your seriousness about the strength of your self-love. But do you mean it? Down to your core--do you mean it? With every fiber of your being and down to the bone marrow, do you mean it? What do you love about you? What are the things you do well? What needs improvement? Why do you love yourself? Think about it, so many of us put on our game faces, but at the end of the day, we grapple with issues of self-worth and identity. And because of this, sadly, we don't truly know WHO and HOW we are.

Unfortunately, we often measure our value by what others tell us we are worth or by what we have. Both of those methods are sure fire self-love killers if you don't have people who speak greatness into your life or if your material possessions aren't top notch. Guess what? You will always fall short if you compare yourself to what others have. That's a quick way to feel bad about yourself constantly.

You have to know that you are your best thing; you know you best. No one can pour anything into you that you can't pour into yourself. Stop giving the best of you away. Too often, we save the scraps for ourselves because we have been taught that self-sacrifice is honorable. While sacrifice definitely has its place, no one should offer him or herself up as a sacrificial lamb. From this day forward, promise to love yourself without hesitation or compromise. You deserve it!!

To get you in the mood for practicing self-love, here is the classic poem, "Still I Rise" by the incomparable Maya Angelou. Enjoy!!

Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

"Still I Rise" courtesy of poets.org