This is a chapter from my third book called Love letters
I did an online quiz to see how much I love myself and the results were that I am about average when it comes to loving myself and that there might be a couple of pretty big things that bother me and would be worth working on to get up to where I need to be. I am surprised and not surprised at the same time and I know that there will always be room for improvement. I start today with the following self love pledge: I was born to be great. My heart was made for loving. I will walk with purpose. I am only human. God loves me and guides me. I will honor my dreams.
I love me and me can stand for my efforts, my energy, my enthusiasm or my essence. My essence is that of a lifelong learner and student of life. I love my willingness to do better. It is often said that we cannot pour from an empty cup and so we should love ourselves. I have managed living with mental illness for twenty years and counting. That has to count for something right. My friend Bard says that that takes incredible strength, resilience, and perseverance, and that I should be very proud of myself. Over the years I have learnt what my triggers are, what my coping mechanisms are, and what works best for me. And I am still learning and grateful for the support that I have.
One of the pathways to loving yourself is forgiving yourself for your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. It is part of being human. I do not dwell on my past stumbles and I learn from them and move on. I found this quote from Marcus Garvey that piqued my interest, "If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life." I tried to make sense of this and what the two defeats are. I think the first defeat is against yourself and the second defeat is by the world. Self-love and self-confidence interplay to create the best version of you. They are like two sides of a coin that we use to play the game of life.
I am grateful for the progress that I have made on my journey of self-love but I know that there is still room for improvement. I am committed to continuing to work on loving myself unconditionally and I am excited to see what the future holds. If I look at love in the mirror the letters will be backwards. Love spelt backwards is evol and that is the beginning of evolution. We evolve and grow as persons with the journey of time and our capacity for love also grows. When I look in the mirror I love the person who I am and who I will become.
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