Yes, February is the love month. You get so caught up thinking of innovative or creative ways to express love to that special someone. In the process, you forget to give love to the most important person in your life — you!
In my opinion, giving love to oneself is not selfish. How will one give unconditional love to others if one does not love oneself? If you don’t love YOU, who will? It is a completely different aura when one exudes love for oneself. It is not a narcissistic love; it’s a peaceful, confident, yet humble kind of love. If you take care of your being, your body, soul and spirit, then you are slowly going to the path of loving yourself. Going to a dermatologist is not just being vain, it’s taking care of your skin because you care about your body. Doing your regular exercise like yoga or Pilates religiously means you care and respect your body. It means you want to be healthy and you want to stay healthy. Loving yourself is very simple really and yet we all forget to even think about this. If you keep expecting other people, say your best friend who goes to her dermatologist regularly, to keep on reminding you to have your skin taken care of, it means that you don’t care about yourself. Other people can only do so much. Ultimately, the initiative has to come from you. Begin loving yourself, even if it means taking baby steps for now; even if at first you find it hard to understand it. The little things you do for yourself will ultimately make a difference. It is a step towards self-love, self-respect.
Make this month the perfect start to love yourself. Do things that will inspire, enrich and make you grow. If you love yourself, then it is so easy to give love to others, unconditionally. You won’t feel like you’re giving of yourself too much because you are whole. You can share and give love to others without completely losing yourself.
Do not let or allow others to oppose what you feel like doing. Just silently wish them that someday they will be able to learn how to also love themselves. Be very happy that you do take time to give love to yourself because YOU deserve it! Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.
The path to loving yourself can get very confusing and long. But when you get there, it is very comforting, very peaceful. It’s like finding yourself at last. It’s like finding that missing part inside of you that you don’t even realize was missing all this time.
This is what I mean when I write about enriching yourself, your body, mind and spirit and making time for yourself... it’s giving love to yourself. This is also why I write about women who are an inspiration to others. Their beauty and spirit clearly say they have found love.... they finally have learned to give love to themselves. This is why they look great. They are happy. They have everything and they stay young.
I admire women who are successful in their careers — even women who are entrepreneurs — because they make time to work out, go to their dermatologists, their hair stylists, the spa, take care of their families. They make great wives, run a humanitarian organization and still look stunning. Why? It is clearly because of self-love, self-respect. They are great models to women especially to the young ladies of this generation. Make time for yourself. It is never too late to start. I think that the core of giving unconditional love to others comes from loving yourself first. This way, the love you give will not feel “sacrificing.” It will be given wholeheartedly.
So, try something new this month. Try to find the time to give love to the most important person who deserves to be loved — YOU.
Get the look:
1. Cleanse. Tone and moisturize if needed.
2. Groom eyebrows.
3. Even out skin tone with foundation.
4. Set with loose powder.
5. Apply mocha-colored eye shadow from the crease down to the lash area.
6. Line upper eyes with brown eye pencil.
7. Curl lashes.
8. Apply dark brown mascara.
9. “Sweep” the face clean with a powder brush.
10. Lightly apply peach-colored blush.
11. Finish with caramel shade lip color.