Column 07 – The Greatest Love of All by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley

This week we have been mourning the loss of Whitney Houston. As I have spent all day listening to her music one song says so much to me; The Greatest Love of All! We will always love her voice and how we feel when we hear her sing. There is a line in this song that touches my heart; Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all. Finally Loving Yourself is this gift!

How do you learn to love yourself? What is Love anyway? To us it may be something that we have never had. Several years ago when I was in an abusive relationship; all I wanted was to feel loved. It didn’t matter if I was loved; I just wanted to feel like I was. What I finally came to realize was I was never going to feel this way by his actions. I needed to find other ways to feel loved.

I started to meditate and in order to stay focused on my breathing I would repeat with each breath in “I LOVE” and the breath out “MYSELF”! Even though I didn’t believe it yet; I still did it! I would meditate 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. This became a way for me to slow my brain down; after a while the words that I said to myself began to manifest themselves into actions.

When something would not feel right; I would ask myself if doing that was loving myself. Now I have taken those simple words and turned them into my mission statement for my life. To find joy in everything I do.

This is one of the greatest gifts I ever gave myself. It keeps me from perpetuating the abuse by showing me that I am loved.  Love is an action word. It is the result of some little deed that makes us feel good or special. I want you to take a few minutes right now and write down a list of things that you can do for yourself to put into action the word love.

Most of mine have become part of my daily routine.

1. Getting dressed to shoes, hair and face
2. Loving Movement
3. Drinking my water
4. Eating Breakfast
5. Eating snacks
6. Taking my vitamins
7. Taking a bubble bath
8. Removing my makeup at night
9. Laying out my clothes
10. Listening to beautiful music in my home and car
11. Going to bed at a decent hour.

These things sound familiar don’t they? Isn’t it strange that something so simple can be the basis for our FlyLady way of loving ourselves. If I can teach you to do this then believe it or not your
home will come together and you will be FLYing!

Pampering is not a chore that can be procrastinated. When you don’t take care of yourself it is one of the first signs that you could be depressed. If you don’t take care of you; who will?

You do have time and when you hear yourself say, “I don’t have time!” then I want you stop right there and do just 5 minutes. You are going to feel better and before you know it you will be FLYing. Hey we may have to fake it till we make it but isn’t that what practice really is! It will become a habit that will continue to bless you and your family. After all! If Momma ain’t happy; ain’t nobody happy!

Take 5 minutes and write down your list of things you can do for yourself. Then I want you to cut them up and put them in a jar and each day I want you to pull one out and surprise yourself with a good deed.

Learning to love yourself is the greatest gift of all!

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