Love Yourself

                You will be hearing the name Carolanne Miljavac from me a lot in the next few months, not just because I read her upcoming book, but also because I think she is such an amazing motivational speaker. Anybody who knows me, in person, knows that I am overweight. I have tried so hard to lose weight, and have been successful to a point, all to only gain it back. Usually plus more with it. About a month or so ago, I was thinking about my weight, and my health, and my trach (see first few blog posts for more info on this). I knew that I need to lose weight, especially because my ENT told me that losing weight would go a long way in getting the trach removed. We had been to the lake that day, and I had already had a small hot fudge sundae, nut on the way home I got an order of fries to eat, even though I wasn’t hungry. I posted in a Facebook group I’m in asking what was wrong with me that I cannot eat right. A friend responded that nothing was wrong with me. She said that I needed to get to the root cause of my eating problem. (Thanks Sandy!) A few weeks later, Carolanne posted about loving yourself and how when you don’t love yourself, you don’t take care of yourself like you should. It was like God tapped me on the should, said uhhmmmm pay attention to this! I realized after reading what she wrote that I do not love myself. In that moment, I resolved to work on that. I realized that if somebody talked to my daughters’ the way that I talk to myself, then I would be spitting mad. I think God feels the same way. God loves me and thinks I’m to die for. (pun intended) For that reason only, I should love myself, because He loves me so completely, and unconditionally.

                Now, I know what you are wondering. “How in the world do you go about starting to love yourself?” This question reminds me of a quote from Carolanne in her new book. I really hope its ok to quote this because I really believe it will help. She was describing her fear of public speaking and how people ask her how she does it. She said” There is no how. I’ve decided.” I realized the same goes for loving yourself. You just make the decision to love yourself. Make the decision that you are enough. Make the decision that you are beautiful. Make the decision that you are special, that you are worthy, that you are loved. Is it really that easy? Yes and no. Well gee that’s clear as mud, right? Lol. You may have to decide to love yourself every single day, multiple times a day. I certainly know that I do.

                Now that we have decided to love ourselves, comes the age-old question, ‘Now what?”. How do we go about the actions of loving ourselves? Again, I reference Carolanne Miljavac. I had already planned this post before today. It has been in the works for a few weeks now. This morning I wake up, check Facebook, and Carolanne had shared an old video of hers talking about self-love. I will try to post a link to that video at the end of this post. What she said is that you must practice personal development. You must know who you are, what your dreams are, what your passions are. One thing that is helpful in this is journaling. You learn a lot about yourself when you read back through some old journals. Also listen to and read uplifting and inspiring podcasts, sermons, and books. I suggest you start in the Bible. Find out what the Bible says about who you are. There are also many preachers, speakers, and writers who are amazing. Whenever you have free time, pick up a good book. If you are cleaning, or exercising, or whatever, have a podcast or sermon going. Books I recommend are Oddly Enough by Carolanne Miljavac, of course, available on November 1^st. Fervent by Priscilla Shirer, and I’m reading Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod right now and it seems to be good so far. (It is a recommendation from Carolanne). I love to listen to and read Heidi St. John, Tony Evans, don’t forget to get his new book Warfare coming out on Sept 1, Lisa and John Bevere, Beth Moore, Max Lucado, Jennifer Dukes Lee, Steven Furtick, Lysa TerKuerst, Elisa Pulliam, Nick Vujicic, Nicki Koziarz, and Sheila Walsh. The most important things that you can do to love yourself more in strengthen your relationship with God. Pray, read His Word daily, and make spending time with Him a priority.

                Here is the link to the Carolanne Miljavac video that I referenced earlier. Its 41 minutes long, but definitely worth the watch.