Loving yourself each day - It is a priority!
I recently celebrated my birthday, and my day started when I woke to beautiful cards and gifts from my family - my three-year-old was more excited to open the presents than I was! Later that day I took him to his first tennis lesson – it was awesome seeing his joy, and I was an incredibly proud father.
Every year I get closer to becoming the person I am meant to become, which I acknowledge and celebrate. On each birthday, I look back at the year to see how I’ve grown, and what my achievements, mistakes and shortcomings have been, and how I can improve and make the coming year a better one.
While we are prioritised on our birthdays, we need to prioritise ourselves every day. I often see people acting selflessly without loving themselves first. This is damaging, and I call this leaking. Take a cup for example. When it is empty how can it be shared, but when it is full and overflowing, it is easy to share. The same with love. When we do not love ourselves enough, we leak and drain ourselves. When our own love is overflowing it is easy to share. That is when we can act selflessly without draining ourselves. To be selfless you have to love yourself first. The more you give in this instance, the more love you create within you. This is when your love overflows and continues to overflow.
Each morning when I wake up I say a personal prayer. A prayer to acknowledge the new day - another opportunity to grow, have fun and live life on purpose. After this I do some exercise or stretches, and a quick meditation session. Before I get dressed, I look into the mirror, and deep into my eyes and I say: "I love you! You are beautiful! You will have fun and achieve!”
This takes about 30 minutes and leaves me with a sense of consciousness and mindfulness of how I need to carry myself throughout the day. Because of this, the decisions I make are congruent with who I am and hence, I live life on purpose.
Every day, I also try to make someone smile. If it's buying a teller a chocolate to say thank you or telling someone that their smile is beautiful or even just greeting someone with a big smile. When you do a positive act, you shift the energy to a happy one, which makes you and those around you feel good.
I believe that a part of our soul leaves our body when we go to sleep and it returns when we wake up. The simple fact that it returns means celebration in life itself! We have another day to learn, to grow, to create our destiny, to have fun, create success and to live life on purpose. Birthdays are fun and cool but we don’t just need a birthday to remind us of this… it’s something we can feel and attain each day.