Love yourself like your life depends on it

Because it does + workshop this Saturday and every Sat in Feb.

Hello all, 

I’ve just been re-reading a gorgeous book called Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on it by Kamal Rabikant. It’s short, sweet and good. 

It’s written by a Silicon Valley guy who had a company that failed, a relationship that ended and a friend that died. He fell into a bad mental and physical hole. 

In desperation one day he started repeating to himself: I love myself, I love myself, I love myself… in an attempt to drown out negative thoughts. For days on end he kept repeating these words. 

He then developed it so that he would take ten deep long breaths. He would breathe in, imagine a light coming down on him and think ‘I love myself’ and then breathe out whatever crap thought might come into his head about why this was not true. 

Then he upped it even more. He stood in front of the mirror, looked himself in the eye and said ‘I love myself I love myself I love myself’. The tick, he said, was to look at his eyes not his body, in the same way you would a loved one.

It changed his life and he wrote a book.

Then he got all happy and complacent. Stopped doing the affirmations, stopped meditating, you know, the usual. Fast forward a few years and he finds himself dumped again - this time a marriage ended - and back in a hole, only this time with extra shame about the fact that he literally wrote the book on loving himself and was now back to hating himself.

So the new updated book is what he learned second time around.

He shares some moving journalling suggestions around the topic of self-love and self-forgiveness. The self-forgiveness bit I thought was very helpful. If you are struggling he says to ask ‘What would I do if I really loved myself?’

I asked myself this question last night while eating crisps and white chocolate after having had a big dinner. I was worrying about the never ending book and so I tried the classic eat my feelings approach. Because, you know, it really solves everything, doesn’t it? Ha.

Anyway, with one hand in the crisp bag and another on my kindle, I asked myself what I would do if I really loved myself and I realised, of course, I would stop putting junk into my body.

I was going to put the crisps in the bin but then I remembered we are in a cost of living crisis, waste is a crime and there are people cold and hungry in Turkey (and everywhere) so I tied the bag up with a hairband for tonight’s treat.

If you too want to love yourself enough to put the crisps away, do join us for Writing for Fun and Sanity this Saturday.

I thought we could do some of the Love Yourself Like Your Life depends on it writing prompts together. We are also back every Saturday of February. Would be lovely to see you.

I really recommend the book too.  

Love love love love love love love
xx

Speaking of Turkey, what’s happening is awful. I live in an area with a lot of Turkish and Kurdish people whose families have been affected. There is concern about money not getting to where it should get to. I have donated via Choose Love.