Warning! There is an assignment today and it may seem ‘hokey’. When I was a kid I grew up on top of a 2 mile hill in Pennsylvania. We had a gorgeous view looking to the East where the sun rose over the little valley. We had a few acres of beautiful lawn and I was in charge of mowing it. It would take hours every week to mow and maintain it. It seemed like I spent half of my life as a child riding a lawn mower back and forth to make the diagonal pattern that my mom wanted for our lawn.
It would only happen if I did it. I remember laying in bed in the morning and daydreaming about having magic powers so that the lawn would be done at the snap of my fingers. I had such a vivid imagination that I would snap my fingers and believe so hard that I had magic powers and that the lawn would magically be cut. I would run to the window and expect to see the grass cut. But, as you have probably determined, I didn’t have magic powers and I would be so disappointed when I got to the window and saw that the work still had to be done.
That’s how it is in life. The work has to be done. Good intentions won’t do the work for you. You have to do the work. The work is what actively transforms your life. Intentions and attitudes are vital because they help to set the direction of your life… but the work is just as vital because the work is what activates and actually transforms us.
Later this week we are going to participate in the one day Self-Love challenge. But today I would like to introduce some of the work to you. When my mentor, Mastin Kipp, first introduced me to this work I immediately thought it was ‘hokey’. I wanted to love myself more and knew it was necessary to a better quality of life. But I didn’t want to engage in something that I had predetermined to be ‘goofy’. The difference is, I had never tried it and my mentor had been practicing it for years. So I gave it a shot and found that the work… well the work, works. So here it is.
Stand in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eyes and repeat five times... "I totally, deeply and completely Love and accept myself just the way I am". Yes you have to say it out loud.
Allow your self to believe that that might possibly be true. That you might be able to love and accept yourself just the way you are right now. Leave open the possibility that there is a chance that you could feel that way about yourself. If you can’t bring yourself to do this in front of the mirror, try just saying it out loud without one.
Now allow those things that you dislike about yourself to come to mind. The things about yourself that sometimes disgust you. Those things you wish you could change about yourself.
Now pick one of those things that you dislike about yourself (just one for now). Stand before the mirror again. And say this to yourself. "Even though I (Fill in the blank, the thing you dislike yourself) I totally, deeply and completely love and except myself just the way I am." Repeat that five times. If you don't feel a change within you, Even the slightest change, Repeat it another five times.
Now, be aware of how you feel. Is there a change? Even the slightest change? Throughout the day, as the things you don’t like about yourself come to mind, take a deep breath and repeat that to yourself. You don’t have to get in front of a mirror, but it does help.
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“Nothing will work unless you do” ~Maya Angelou
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overhauls and looks like work.” ~Thomas Edison
“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
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