DO YOU LOVE YOU?

I had to stop… stop running around, stop doing my daily chores, stop getting ready for work, stop getting ready to go to bed… just stop! Because I had forgotten the most important person in my life. I had not met her since ages! I was so busy with my work, studies and life in general that I forgot she existed.

So I had to stop and look at her, give my full attention. Today I finally met me…. After ages of looking in the mirror, just looking at my appearance or my reflection, today I looked at myself properly.

Does it happen to you too? Do you look in the mirror every day and look at yourself not through your own eyes but through the eyes of people you will be meeting throughout the day? Because you have to be presentable… make an impression…

I feel ashamed to say that I don’t know me… I really don’t, because I don’t take time out of my life to spend some with myself. But today I looked myself in the eyes, appreciated and acknowledged myself and the beauty in my flaws…. I learnt that I absolutely love myself.

Not to sound self-absorbed, but shouldn’t you be a priority for yourself? I realized that if I don’t pay attention to myself, if I don’t love myself, how can I expect another human being to do so.

I might sound stupid to some now! But of course one knows oneself… how can you not? You are you! But even you surprise yourself sometimes. When you eat a candy which you thought you loved, but as soon as it touches your tongue you realize you absolutely hate it. Hello! When did my tastes change? How come I wasn’t notified about it?

If you really know yourself and love yourself why not do what is best for you always? How come you don’t avoid fights and anger when you know it is going to harm you? Why do you let someone else anger you and affect you so…

Everybody needs some me time… It might be meditating or reading a book all cozied up in your favorite corner or taking a short vacation… you need to show yourself some love! Hug yourself, take care of yourself… Remind yourself that even though you need someone who loves you in your life, you need to first love yourself…. Love the team of cells and nuclei working hard inside you just to keep you alive… You have just got to acknowledge them, be grateful that you have yourself and work to live and not the other way around.

After all, we come with an expiry date which isn’t written anywhere. Life is brief, not eternal! Love yourself while you still have the chance! :)

“As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything that drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. Today I know it is “LOVE OF ONESELF”.

We no longer need to fear arguments, confrontations or any kind of problems with ourselves or others. Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born. Today I know “THAT IS LIFE”!”

-Charlie Chaplin

(From the “Love Yourself” Manifesto)