Fall in Love with Yourself, Autoimmunity and All
Do you love yourself, not just in a theoretical way but do you truly LOVE yourself, body and soul, autoimmunity and all, flare or no flare?
WHAT do you love about yourself? Your hair? Your teeth? Your generous heart? Your smile? Your laugh? Your ability to laugh at yourself?
Do you love that you love something or someone?
Maybe you love that you love heavy metal music (my husband’s answer when I asked him what he loves about himself). I thought this was kind of a lame but cute answer (try again, Sweetie!) when I first heard him say this, but the more I thought about it, I also love about myself that I love certain things.
I love that I love to run, I love to surf (although I have a lot of room for improvement there) in the warm ocean when I have the opportunity, I love that I feel God’s presence in a keen and powerful way through his creation (WOW, God!), and I love to learn and share deep thoughts with others.
I have a strong inkling that if you have an autoimmune disease, you can benefit from learning to fall in love with yourself more, not in a narcissistic way, but in a YOU-affirming, becoming-the-best-YOU-so-you-can-feel-more-joy-and-serve-others-with-joy kind of way. How’s that for an adjective?!
Begin this moment to notice how beautiful and wonderful you are, just the way you are right now, giving no power or focus to anything you don’t like at this moment, including any autoimmune symptoms.
Do you have limbs, or at least some of them? Thank God or even thank your limbs for helping you do so many things to go about your day.
Do you have eyes? Thank God or thank your eyes that you can see God’s beautiful creation, either first hand or through others’ photographs, artwork, or other visual media each day. Thank God you can see those you love each day, either in person or online.
Do you have the ability to hear? Can you turn on music on your favorite app, CD player or radio and feel your mood change instantly as you imagine what the music evokes? Thank that artist that he or she decided to record that music in some form so that you could enjoy it this moment, perhaps hundreds of years later or this very year or day he or she created it.
The more you focus on what you love about yourself, NOT what you don’t like about yourself and your body, the more you will affirm your value and self-worth and notice even more things you love about you.
As your self-love grows, it will tremendously help you heal your body from autoimmunity and all forms of disease, love others more fully, and also help others to see more clearly what they love about you.
So commit this day to start noticing and journaling every day about what you love about YOU, even with autoimmunity. Start with your most basic senses or abilities and as you get better at it, move on to your qualities and gifts that make you uniquely, unrepeatable YOU.
List ONE thing you love about yourself in the Comments below!
Blessed by Autoimmunity