Love is an all-encompassing word–so very meta, if you will. And while it’s not an easy word to pinpoint a definition to, though believe me I’ve tried, it is something that is very easy to offer some gratitude!
How is it, that if I can’t quite define it, I can offer it gratitude, you ask? The answer is so simple it’s almost silly. If love is everything, within every particle of the universe, than my offering up of gratitude to anyone or anything at all, is an offer in love’s name.
With that being said, I’m staring at my blank canvas of a word processor, and trying to decide where in the world I’d like to direct some gratitude-filled love today. Whilst this topic is so vast, I’m going to stay inside the box, and offer gratitude to a little thing called self-love.
Self-love is one of those things that seems easy in theory, but I can’t explain how many times I’ve gotten advice from friends telling me, “All you really need to do is just love yourself a little more…” And I’m like, “I know, I knooow. Of course. Sure. You’re so right. Definitely.”
But I’d be fooling myself if I could say I had the answer as to HOW best do that.
Let’s not get me wrong here, I think I’m pretty awesome, and I definitely don’t hate myself. But there have been situations that have occurred in my life, where I do not put my well-being or convenience first. I have been known to dance around people’s wishes, aiming to please, forever looking to compromise, and while I don’t think this is a character flaw of mine in the least, I do recognize that there comes a point when I need to say,
Because today was one of those days for me, I’m grateful that I took the time to see where my energy was being zapped by other people. Letting others control my feelings and/or environment is the opposite of self-love. For me, it takes a lot of heart to admit when it’s happening, but usually I can feel it in my body. Recently my second, fourth and fifth chakras have felt blocked up ….And by that I mean, I’ve been experiencing a feeling of deep discomfort residing in the pit of my stomach, around my chest and in my throat. Recognizing this discomfort and telling myself stop and settle into it has been the first step. Discussing with those who have had an impact on my dis-ease, well, that’s a whole different ball game, but I’m on my way. I’ll get there, but not before making a couple of pit stops to: the massage therapist, yoga studio and amazon.com’s spiritual self-help book section. Hopefully by the time I reach step two, I’ll have worked out a few tense muscles in my shoulders and will be yielding my smoking gun of spiritual wisdom and infinite patience.
Today, I bow to myself in deep, loving gratitude,
Nomad 