Love Yourself

This tattoo has a powerful message.  One that I hope you will appreciate.  It is something I have always preached to others, but it wasn’t until I endured a heart wrenching experience last fall that I really came to embrace it.  You see, for years, I have always done my best to uplift those around me.  Whether it was a family member or an acquaintance at the gym asking for tips.  I have always motivated others, through my words and/or actions… all the while, I was neglecting myself.  I would preach about women not putting up with nonsense in their relationship… or a man coming home from work and being treated badly by his wife and not standing up for himself… etc… etc… But last year, I found myself in a similar situation.

Here I was, putting my all into a long distance relationship with someone who was constantly giving me broken promises and empty hopes.  I was committed to something that was nothing more than a foolish dream.  As strong as I am, I was played for a fool and hurt badly, and repeatedly by the same individual… and felt disrespected over and over.  After a few months, with little improvement, I jumped ship.  It was the only choice I had, because I was not about to continue eating crap.

My best friend kept a watchful eye over me during this time and although she wanted to see me get out of the situation, she also knew I had to make that decision for myself when I was ready… It was pretty sudden, intense, and BOOM! Like a light switch… I just decided… “I’m not going to stand for this any longer…. GOODBYE JERK!”… 🙂 and just like that, no matter how upset I felt about breaking things off… I knew it was what had to be done.  I looked at myself in the mirror… wiped away the tears, took a deep breath and said, “Goodbye… I might have fallen for you (imagining speaking to the other person)… but I LOVE MYSELF MORE!”

It was so empowering! Yes, I still had lingering feelings of sadness here and there… but I remained true to myself.  I encourage all of you… to really think about where you are in life… Are you being to true to who you are?  Think about it… Maybe a change is right around the bend for you too.