OFFER GRATITUDE FOR YOU!

When was the last time you appreciated yourself? Have you ever been grateful for whom you are? Have you ever looked in the mirror and said ‘Thank you’ to the person staring back at you; for your health, beauty, wisdom, or imagination? Have you ever appreciated anything about yourself?

It’s a sad reality in which it is perfectly acceptable to put yourself down CONSTANTLY. I am too fat, I am stupid, I deserve no happiness, I am ugly, I am never going to be successful, I will never be good enough, etc. etc. etc. These are the truths that people constantly tell themselves. And I say truths because what you say or feel about yourself is your own person truth. Others can look at you when you call yourself fat, ugly and unsuccessful and see a complete lie – they might see you as a person at a healthy weight, who is beautiful and extremely successful, but they are not YOU. Most likely they are not going to feel gratitude for your skinny body, your beauty or your success. Hopefully they are appreciating their own uniqueness as you should be appreciating yours.

Until you love and accept yourself, you can not expect others to love and accept you. Thinking thoughts such as “If I lose 5 pounds, maybe he will love me more” or “if I work really hard and become successful, maybe my father will love me” or “If I have this cosmetic surgery done, buy these expensive clothes, spend a lot of money on my hair and make-up, then I will look good and people will find me attractive”are all scenarios about pleasing other people, looking for acceptance/appreciation from others. And don’t we all do this – blame ourselves for not being thin enough, successful enough or pretty enough to make someone else love us. We tell ourselves we will love ourselves when someone else does! That is BACKWARDS! No one worthy of YOU can actually love YOU until YOU love yourself! (read that again!) No one will appreciate you until you appreciate yourself!

We all know that saying/feeling bad things about ourselves is only going to bring more of the same into our lives. If you believe you are fat, you will be fat. If you need to lose weight, you will always have weight you need to lose. If you feel you are ugly, you will never look in a mirror and see that you are beautiful. You will never be happy if you always feel you deserve to be unhappy. You will never be satisfied with your success if you always believe you are unsuccessful. You will never love yourself if you feel someone else has to first.

For some reason, how you feel about yourself is the hardest belief to transform. Learning to look in a mirror and find good things to say and feel about yourself is the hardest things to do, yet loving and appreciating yourself should be the most natural thing to do. Until you love, accept and are grateful for who you are, nothing else matters or will change in your life. YOU are so important. You are MOST important!

Take a small journal with you EVERYWHERE you go during the day. Start each day by writing down 5 things you are grateful for, ABOUT YOURSELF, first thing in the morning. You should do this before your feet hit the ground, but at least within a few minutes of rising. You could be grateful for your ability to sleep soundly, for your legs that carry you to the morning coffee pot, for your eyes to see where you left your reading glasses, for your willpower in not eating the last cookie along with your morning joe. Possibilities are endless about what you can find about yourself to be grateful for, but when you first start to appreciate yourself, this is actually a hard task to do! I know – I’ve been there, but I assure you, it does get easier.

Keep your journal close by all day. As you go about your day, continue to write down all the great things about yourself that you can come up with or that happen to you that make you feel good. Appreciate yourself for making the wise choice to eat an apple today. Feel gratitude for your ability to put your hand on a door knob and have the ability to open that door. Appreciate that your hair looks good today – even if you just stepped out of the barber shop. If someone compliments your outfit, be grateful you had the mindset to put that awesome outfit together. If your boss gives you yet another task to complete, feel grateful that he sees the competent employee that you are. If your child gives you a handmade ‘I Love You’ card, acknowledge that you must be a great parent. As the day unfolds, and opportunities present themselves to offer gratitude for your own individuality, write them down!

If you find yourself having a negative thought about yourself, immediately find something good about yourself in that situation and write it down. If you spill coffee on your blouse and call yourself a stupid idiot (haven’t we all?) – immediately replace that with “Thank you Self for not getting coffee on your report that you need to give your boss in 5 minutes!” and write down; I am grateful I spilled coffee on myself this morning instead of on my report.

You get the idea. Write down as many positive things about yourself that you can and offer gratitude for yourself. At the end of the day, just before bed, write 5 more things you appreciate about yourself. Then go back thru your journal postings and read how many wonderful moments happened that you were expressing gratitude for who you are! Count them up if you want and try to come up with even more appreciative moments the next day. The goal is to constantly think of YOU as a wonderful person – someone who is beautiful, healthy, intelligent, successful and loveable.

 Think about the ideal YOU – who you really want to be – write these traits down as a header on your journal and seek specific moments of appreciation thru out your day that target your desired traits. For example – if you want to feel confident, make sure you write about the moments throughout your day that make you feel confident.

Once you start to see more of the good qualities in yourself and offer gratitude for yourself, you will find more and more to be grateful for. You will learn to love yourself and appreciate who you are now. You will find that those ideal traits you desired are already present in who you are. And once you love yourself for who you are (you’ll have the written proof), then you can show the world that you are truly beautiful, successful, healthy and YOU.