Love Thy Self

PSA: Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. You have 5 more days to decide how you want to celebrate. Valentine’s Day also falls on the first day of Lent this year, so maybe nix a heart-shaped box of candy as a token of your love and affection since giving up sweets is a popular Lenten sacrifice for those who honor those traditions. I plan to give up Diet Pepsi and endure the skull crushing headache for the first 5 days.

If you don’t have a Valentine, or even if you do, loving yourself may be the best gift. The podcast I co-host, The Problem with Perfect, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-problem-with-perfect/id1482443584, is featuring a series on self-love this month and it has been a valuable reminder of two things:

1. All I have to be grateful for and don’t always appreciate,
2. How comparison is the thief of joy.

Bonnie Raitt has a line in her song, Nick of Time, “Those lines are pretty hard to take when they’re staring back at you.” It’s so easy to focus on the wrinkles without acknowledging how blessed I am to have lived long enough to have them.

I could, not should (no shoulding on yourself), lose a few pounds but rather than concentrating on what isn’t, I’m grateful for what is. I don’t have washboard abs but I do have 2 beautiful children who were born via C-section. No toned tummy will ever compare to the joy they bring to my life.

There are days I’m up at 6AM to run, and days I’m still in my jammies at 4PM – it’s called balance. The fact that I have the freedom to choose is not taken for granted. I started working before I graduated from high school, and I worked for the next 55 years. In fact, I’m still working but on my schedule in between days reserved for family, friends, and fun. I didn’t always have that kind of flexibility as a single mom, part-time student, and full-time employee. If you’re in the throes of raising kids, working 8-5, maintaining a household, and coaching the soccer team, just know it may feel like forever, but it’s over in the blink of an eye. In the meantime, ask for help and please take a break every once in a while – it’s not selfish, it’s self-love.

And speaking of running, I’m still at it 31 years later. Not as fast or as far, but I am blessed with a body that loves exercise. I haven’t run a competitive race in a few years but being in the “F70 and over” category almost always guarantees a spot on the podium. A medal for being old and slow. How cool is that?!

🏅🏅🏅