honor yourself | Self-Help Books

This is the image of a chalk board with the text, "I Love Me" written

New Year’s is the time of year for reflection and for making life changing decisions that bring about improvements in your life.

Many of us spend the first day of the year living in regrets for things not done and focusing on unfulfilled dreams. Dwelling on the past is likely to cause you to feel powerless and judgmental about yourself. More importantly, dwelling on mistakes of the past deprives you of focusing on the golden opportunities of the present.

This year, vow to give yourself the ultimate gift – self-love. Self-love is not about narcissism, vanity, and ignoring the needs of others. Self-love is about being kind, respectful, and forgiving of yourself.

Where do you start? Grab a pen and tablet! Doing the following four very simple exercises will help you to start your New Year in a wonderful, healthy self-loving way:

Make a list of everything for which you are thankful. Gratitude opens the soul to acknowledging the many blessings you already have. This is not just the “big stuff,” like getting a promotion. It also includes the basics we take for granted, like having food, water, and a warm place to call home. We tend to forget how many people in the world do not even have the basics to survive in life.

Write down 10 of the biggest “mistakes” you think you have made over the past year. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and one-by-one, forgive yourself. Honestly, it is as simple as saying, “I did the best I could with what I knew at the time – I forgive myself NOW.” This is perhaps the most healing thing we can ever do for ourselves because we free ourselves to move into present time, where all new possibilities exist!

Write down at least 10 major lessons you learned from the “10 biggest mistakes” (item 2) – Success is so much more than the absence of failure. It is about learning and growing from every experience we have – both “good” and “bad.”

Write down 10 things you choose to accomplish this year. Be sure to begin each statement with “I am (the ultimate words of creation), state it in the positive, and say it as though it already is accomplished, i.e. “I am increasingly treating myself with love and respect, and I am attracting people who love and respect me in all my relationships.”

It is never too late to bring in the change that you have always wanted to see around you. Let this New Year be the one that will see you being at the forefront of introducing new ideas and new concepts to make the world a better and safer place.

Happy, Healthy New Year!

Sandra

Sandra Brossman is the author of The Power of Oneness, Live the Life You Choose and the featured presenter in Live the Life You Choose DVD. To learn more about how you can align your life with spiritual truth, order the book or DVD box set at http://www.thepowerofoneness.com/products/.

This is an image of year 2014 with an arrow pointing down a road toward light - as though we have the whole year ahead of us.

As we begin yet another new year, we may beat ourselves up for not sticking with the previous year’s resolutions (uh oh – I didn’t keep my resolution to exercise every other day and/or to lose that 50 pounds!). This can lead to a sense of resignation about being able to achieve things in the New Year.

Studies consistently indicate that we tend to be extremely self-critical. Psychologist, Rick Hanson, states, “The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.” That said, we also know that one of the best ways to motivate ourselves is by focusing on our accomplishments. Since we tend to measure our successes from the previous year by only the “big things” we have achieved, we overlook the countless “little things” we’ve done that have added a lot of quality to our lives and the lives of others.

This is an image of the word negative crossed out and the the words Think Positive displayed

For this reason, I encourage you to congratulate yourself for the many things you DID accomplish in 2013, like all the times you:

Were supportive of your child/children when you felt you didn’t have an ounce of patience left to do so

Listened attentively to your spouse or partner sharing a problem even when you were experiencing plenty of your own challenges

Went to work or finished a major project, giving it your all even though you were exhausted

Smiled and said “thank you” to someone who needed to hear it

Forgave someone who really hurt your feelings

Placed a phone call or sent an email to encourage someone even though you, yourself, were feeling discouraged

Offered encouragement to someone in pain even while you were experiencing your own pain

Volunteered to take time to help someone in need even though your calendar was jammed

Took the time to recycle even though it would have been a lot easier to just throw everything into the trash

I could go on and on – but you get the picture!

So this year, let’s do something different. Make it your number one resolution to be kind to yourself and thank yourself for all that you’ve already accomplished. You were and are amazing!

Drop a comment on this post to share what you’d like to thank yourself for today.

Love and Light

Tag Archives: honor yourself

The Ultimate New Year’s Gift: Self-Love

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Welcome 2014! Another Year That Brings Forth Many Opportunities To Reinvent Ourselves

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