How To Let Go of The Past
Not being able to let go of the past can keep you stuck for years. The suffering of holding on keeps your stories alive. Attachment drives you into heartache. In fact, over time, you could have also gotten used to the suffering. So much so that you may even feel lost at the thought of becoming free from pain.
(Photo: Singapore Botanic Gardens)
It is possible to fear that there will be emptiness when you let go of the past. You are not sure what could be left of you if all the anger, hurt and resentment is gone. After all, you have defined yourself by the stories you believe in. You may think that it is better to cling on the old stories because you fear losing your identity. Well, as I had discovered, this is erroneous thinking.Continue reading
How to Open Your Heart to Love
Find it difficult to open your heart? If happens when you cut off your feelings. It could be that you have been dealing with life mostly from your head. There is a certain disconnection about you that others can sense. Others may even call you cold. You believe it to be mostly true for you do not recall shedding a tear even while watching the most tragic scene in the Titanic movie.
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.”
– Oscar Wilde
Very likely, your difficulty stems from past trauma. You have been hurt real bad previously. So your resourceful subconscious mind protects you with a shield around your heart. It is so thick that little love can penetrate through.
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How to Overcome Self Doubt
Self doubt happens when you have little belief in yourself. There is an inner lack of faith and confidence. You are not able to claim your own accomplishments, even when due. You feel like an imposter, a fraud and a cheat. You deem yourself as unworthy of any kind of praise, accolades or validation; although you are deserving.
When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt.
It does not matter that others may think highly of you. What counts is the perception and evaluation of your own capability. You very much doubt in your own ability or power to garner required resources or support.
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The Practice of Self-Compassion
Practising self compassion may be something that you are not used to.
After all, you could be having h the habit of beating yourself up all your life. In your experience, you have found harsh criticisms extremely useful as a motivator for actions. It is how you have made yourself get out of bed every morning.
You may perceive self compassion as being indulgent. You would not dream of giving excuses for your wretched state. You see self-compassion as disempowering. Hence, taking a tough stance towards the self is important.
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Self Love Series: Love Yourself Teachings By Buddha
“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha
An important core teaching in Buddhism is self-love. Buddha teaches that you love the self before extending the love to others. In other words, before you are able to be a love luminary, you must have the capacity to embrace yourself fully. Today being Vesak Day, let’s celebrate Buddha’s teachings about love.
Self Love Series: 101 Loving Yourself Quotes
Loving yourself quotes are sayings to inspire you for practising greater self-love.
From brilliant poets to inspirational writers and the great sages of all time, each had espoused one and the same: love within yourself leads you to love for all. Self-love is the secret to living fully. Through healthy self-love, you lay the foundation to creating your best life!
(Love who you are. Love yourself through self acceptance, forgiveness and esteem. My collage illustrates Loving Yourself Quote #62 below.)
The following are 101 loving yourself quotes. I have also classified the quotes according to the sub-categories of self-love, where possible. Pick one each day to contemplate over its meaning. Enjoy!
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Love Myself Poem by Charlie Chaplin
A beautiful self-love poem has apparently been written by Charlie Chaplin who composed it for his 70th birthday (April 16, 1959). Well, at least that is what a google search revealed. It is exceptional because there are not many poems written about loving the self and in my opinion, contains much wisdom.
Here’s how Chaplin’s “love myself poem” goes….
As I Began to Love Myself – Self Love Poem
As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering
are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth.
Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY”.
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Self Love Story: Lessons From the Heart
My self love story first arose from lessons in relationships. The inability to experience love outside myself eventually led to a search from within. It’s going to take me courage to share more details about my life experiences. However, for some reason, the twinkling stars from beyond the cosmos seem aligned today. I have decided to proceed with publishing my self love story. So here goes…
(Taken from My Art Journal: Be the Author of A Compelling Self Love Story)
For a long time, I sought for love everywhere else other than from the inside. I had no awareness about what it meant to love myself back then. Brought up on a diet of fairy tales, I was seriously hoping to ride into the sunset with the One, happily married ever after. Obviously, my dreams never quite materialised in the way I was expecting them to.
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70 Ways For Self Care
Self care is an act of loving yourself.
Any act of self care is to nourish your mind, body or spirit. Whatever it is, you do something nurturing. You don’t put off from taking a needed break or having some me-time. You create a better relationship with self.
Self care is taking care of your inner home. And obviously, you do not wreck yourself apart when you undertake self-care. This means that you don’t give excuses for feeling tired, crying or going for an expensive pedicure. You please yourself rather than others. Very importantly, you do not experience guilt, shame or blame. So it may mean eating more, less or having an indulgence every now and then. You take a balanced approach to overall holistic well-being.
How To Build Intuitive Awareness For Inspired Actions
For the law of attraction to work, taking both obvious and inspired actions is necessary. For abundance to manifest, you must move towards your desires both on an internal and external level. Internally, your desires must be clear, strong and in alignment with your soul purpose. Externally, you must take appropriate affirming actions.
“An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.”
— Quote by Arnold Glasow