Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Self Love Day #2

Just a reminder, this self-love revolution came from Marin Bach-Antonson, who you can learn more about here.  This beautiful woman came to me through Kim Salter who facilitates the Nashville Sister Circle I talked about last week.  A lot of this is copied directly from Marin's emails, so I'm not going to take any credit for it other than sharing it with you and adding my little comments here and there about my own experience!

This week, we are being radical about practicing self-love and part of that is learning how to Talk Ourselves Happy. Today, anytime you notice you are judging yourself, berating yourself, pushing yourself or putting yourself down, I want to suggest that you stop that habitual thought whenever you can by saying, “NOPE!  Not this week.  I'm choosing to love myself.”  Then, take a deep breath to change your physiology and tap your heart point (where you'd put a hand for the pledge of allegiance) 3 x.  This will interrupt the negativity with ninja effectiveness and even begin imprint the new thought pattern!  Do this as many times today as you can.


Today's Invitation: A Self-Love Truth Telling Ritual

Part of loving ourselves is not just about feeling amazing about who we are.  It's also the ability to be vulnerable with ourselves. We're not perfect.  Self-love is the ability to embrace our fears, soften around our mistakes and be gentle with the parts of ourselves that feel inadequate.  The last thing we want to do this week is get so "self-lovie" that the inadequate parts feel even more abandoned. 

So the invite today is to sit with a tender heart and give yourself about 10 minutes to do this Self-Love Ritual.

A Self-Love Truth Telling Ritual
(You'll need: Pen, paper, a mirror and a candle)

Start by lighting a candle to honor the light within YOU.  Spend a few moments to "presence" yourself.  Let go of your day.  Bring yourself into the moment. Open your heart. Once you can feel yourself fully present, you’re ready to get started.

If you were to tell some vulnerable truths to yourself what would you say? 

Use pen and paper to finish this sentence and fill a whole page:

The Truth is: 
(ex)  I am scared of failing
I often feel like people don't get me
I'm not comfortable letting people see me without makeup
etc....

Give yourself some quiet sacred, space to get soft with yourself.
When you are finished with your list, read it aloud to yourself and insert "It's OK" at the beginning of each sentence.  For example, "It's ok that I'm scared of failing,"

When you are done reading your list aloud, get out your mirror (or go to one) and look yourself deep in the eyes.  REALLY look at yourself with eyes of love and softness and say this:

"I love and accept you exactly as you are right now"

At first the ego will boom back:  "What a joke, look at your skin, ugh, etc.... "  Allow it.  Love it.  Be ok with it. Your ego is just trying to protect you in the best way it knows how.  Stay there in front of the mirror for at least 2 minutes.  (You might even set a timer on your phone.)  Hold your gaze like you would a loved one.  Love yourself.  Be as tender as you can.  Say your affirmation a few more times.

Go back to your candle- Bless yourself with the light of the flame as if you could paint a bubble of warm angelic light all around you.  Smile to signal that you have received this self-blessing.  Say a few names aloud to whom you also want to send this blessing to and imagine that you CAN send "self-love" light to anywhere in the world.  For example, “I share this light with Amy, Greta and all women who suffer violence and believe it's their fault.”

Close your ritual by placing a hand on your heart and thanking yourself for time well spent with YOU.

All in all, this will literally take about 15 minutes.  Please give yourself this gift.
Ritual is powerful because it is the language of the psyche.  The subconscious responds to imagery and symbolic action.  You are literally re-patterning the subconscious when you create this experience for yourself.


Today's Resource:  The Power of Vulnerability

Each day Marin also shared a gift with us; a resource, a poem, etc.  I’m going to pass those along to you, too.  Today, it's Brene Brown at TED talks speaking about vulnerability.

If you haven't seen it- it's truly a must, must, must!!!!
If you HAVE seen it, I want to invite you to drink it in with new "self-love" eyes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?viCvmsMzlF7o

True vulnerability is the core of self-love. 


Don't forget to post 3 things you love about yourself today and try to get your FB friends to do the same.  Women tend to find intimacy in complaining to each other about everything that is shitty about life.  My cranky kids, my lazy husband, my fat ass.  OMG...my ass is so fat too and believe me my husband is even lazier than yours.....etc. etc.

Imagine if we could change this and birth a new model where women could find intimacy in sharing the most beautiful things they love about themselves.
We're changing the world one post at a time!

Thank you for being part of this with me and thank you for loving yourself!



Much love,

Marin and Emily Rose

Check out Marin's website here: https://www.facebook.com/Riseupgoddess

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