When you fly on a commercial airline and they are reviewing the safety features, have you ever noticed that they always say you need to put your own air mask on FIRST and then assist your child?  Do you apply that same principle in everyday life?  In other words, are you taking care of yourself first so that you can better help your children in the long run?

There are so many aspects to a parent’s life where I find most DO NOT take care of themselves first and then they quickly burn out.  Today I want to talk about showing love and I’m directing you to not forget to show yourself some love before you show love to others.

And while chocolate, a massage, and some retail therapy are great – that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about showing love in the form of kindness to yourself.

For many years I wasn’t very kind to myself. My inner dialogue consisted of a lot of “I’m an idiot”, “I should be ________”, “I shouldn’t be ______”, “I need to lose weight”, “Why can’t I do this right?”, “What is wrong with me?” – – – – and you get the point. My Inner Bully was in full command of my inner dialogue. I always made a point to be kind to others but I couldn’t afford that same courtesy to myself.

And then one day I decided that if I wanted better, I needed to start with myself and the first step was to become aware of just how much airtime my Inner Bully got. Wow, no wonder life seemed dull and so hard – my Inner Bully talked nonstop and had an opinion about everything I did and everything I thought. 

It didn’t happen overnight but with some dedicated work, I was able to locate my Inner Cheerleader and allow her to speak more. The more my cheerleader spoke, the less I heard from the bully. The more I kept at it, the more my quality of life improved. Now, that doesn’t mean I suddenly made oodles of money or that I no longer had any problems or that my son’s difficult challenges disappeared but it does mean that my attitude and mindset about all of that shifted and I was able to deal more effectively with everything. I discovered gratitude in all things. And it all started with turning inward and loving myself unconditionally first. 

May you find the love of your life this week! (ahem, that means yourself <3) ~ Amy Y.