How to Love Yourself

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

I've been spending a lot of time recently reading books about the importance of self-love and I wanted to share a thought with everyone from a wonderful author, Marianne Williamson. "Our Deepest Fear", by Marianne Williamson, from "A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles."

The most important relationship you'll have in your life is with yourself. I've thinking about self love and how much time we spend chasing romantic love and searching for approval and love from others, when ultimately, self-love is fundamental to our well-being and outlook. Looking for approval from others blinds us to the fact that the only approval we need is our own. We all have times when we accept ourselves for who and what we are, and during those times we feel free to be ourselves, we feel listened to and understood, and that there are no conditions set on our relationships with ourself and consequently with others.

It can be difficult to be your own best friend. Most of us are very self-critical and compare ourselves to others. We worry about what other people think. We often think quite negatively about ourselves. Our lives would be so much easier if we just realised that we are good enough just as we are, and we can achieve whatever we want to achieve if we're willing to work long enough and hard enough at our goals. We need to quieten that little negative voice inside our head and realise that in order to be a best friend to others we ultimately need to be our own best friend.