Self love for every day

I am brave.
I am smart.
I can do anything.
I am worthy.
I am lovable.

It’s the month of love, and we love that it is! Not that love shouldn’t be celebrated each and every month, week and day of the year, we know how life as a mamma runs away with time. More often than not we are on auto-pilot. So having a time – be it a celebration, a day, or a month like this – dedicated to bringing awareness to something we may take for granted or not have time to stop and think about, we embrace!

Love is love is love, and we celebrate it in all forms, great and small! February and Valentine’s Day is typically associated with romantic love, Little Cupid and his heart bow and arrow working hard at lighting and re-igniting romantic love between couples. However we also look at it, more importantly, as a month to take a moment and to be mindful of the love we give ourselves. Not only is this crucial for our own selves, but for our children too.

We know our children, consciously and subconsciously, learn from our behaviour and actions. By bsorbing and mimicking how we do things.

Did you smile at yourself this morning whilst whipping on some mascara and lipstick? Whilst combing out sticky fingers residue in your hair. Your little ones were watching you…

Did you say how beautiful you felt when dressed up to go for your date night? O even when you just slipped on a dress to run some errands, with your hair up in a bun? Your little ones were watching you…

Did you laugh at yourself when you made a mistake with the baking recipe, turning the cake into a blob of unrecognizable mess, saying out loud ‘Oops! I made a mistake, but now I know I know what I did wrong, and I’ll do better next time!’ You’re little ones were watching you…

Why not make the most pivotal lesson of all, be that of loving yourself unconditionally?

As Dr Asa Don Brown says, “[a]ll children should be taught to love unconditionally, accept, approve, admire, appreciate, forgive, trust, and ultimately love, their own person.”

Don’t only speak to yourself positively and with love, but chat to those around you like that too, and especially to your little ones. Tell them how exercise and healthy eating is a way of showing your body love. Making it strong and working well. Chat about how brushing your teeth makes a smile even more sparkly and beautiful. Explain how showing kindness to others makes a person not only beautiful on the outside, but inside too. Demonstrate how making mistakes is ok and totally normal. That its how you respond to these mistakes – with acknowledgement, understanding and gentle kindness – is what shines through you.

“If I could give my children three things, it would be the confidence to always know their self-worth, the strength to follow their dreams, and the ability to know how truly, deeply loved they are.” Take the time this month to set in motion daily habits of expressing positive and loving verbal affirmations as well as actions. Be the example to your children of the importance of loving yourself, and being kind and gentle with yourself. Build up your children’s self-esteem, and raise them to be loving beings, towards themselves, others, animals and this planet.