Love is in the air - or is it?

It’s February and everywhere you look there are soppy Valentine’s cards and overpriced chocolates and half dead roses.  Now don’t get me wrong I am not anti-love, but I am anti-commercialisation and profiteering for one day that has been jumped on and hyped up for profit.

I do love and I am loved, and for that I am very grateful.  My hubby and I have been married for 30 years and the way we love each other today is somewhat different to how we loved each other when we first fell in love some 30 odd years ago!  I am certain if you ask anyone who has been in a long-term committed relationship, they will tell you the same and they will also tell you that being in such a relationship takes work - hard work - but that all the hard work is absolutely worth it.

For this Valentine’s, I want you to think about self-love, the way that we love ourselves.  No not that kind of self-love, although my mate Valaire is the queen of that kind of self-love and is very passionate about it!

I’m talking about the day to day way we treat ourselves.  Until we actually stop and think about it - and I mean really think about it - I would be willing to wager that most of us think we are good at self-love.  You know the odd waxing session and a face pack - but in reality, that’s not self-love.

After all, if we can’t love our selves then how can we really love others?

This has been one of my biggest challenges - self-love.  To be honest 3 years ago I did not love myself at all and I did not know how to love myself.  Thankfully, through the coaching programme I undertook I was shown and guided through the art of self-love and was then cajoled by my tribe into making sure that I practice self-love, if not on a daily basis, then regularly.  It’s obvious to me and the rest of the world when I do actively follow this practice and when I lapse, I very quickly become aware, and it doesn’t take me too long to work out what I am missing!

Self-love will be different for each and every one of us but there are some common key components:

• Self-compassion

• Positive self-talk and the way we speak to ourselves and our inner dialogue

• Letting go of limiting beliefs (I’m not good enough, I can’t be loved, I can only be loved if …)

• Taking care of our own physical, emotional and spiritual needs

• Understanding our values

• Understanding our needs

So, my lovelies, my challenge to you this month is to work on your self love.  Try and identify what it is you need more of – and, just as importantly, what you need to let go of - in order to love yourself truly, deeply, madly then incorporate those things into your daily life.  Remember they can be very simple and not actually have to cost a penny - I can guarantee they will last so much longer than the soppy card, chocolates, and droopy roses!

If you need any help in identifying where you are lacking in self-love and how to bring more self-love into your life, why not book a coaching session with me and let’s see what we can discover together?

And if you are fortunate enough to be given a soppy card, chocolates, and droopy roses, accept them graciously and enjoy them for what they are in the moment.

With love my cherubs, Michelle x