Hello everyone,

Back so soon – I must really have some extra motivation this 2019.

Self-love – a term that within the last year or two, really has been flung around into everyday conversations.

“You have to love yourself more”.

“Why don’t you see the things about yourself that I do?”.

Easier said than done I suppose.

Now I can tell you all the things that you can do to practise self-love and motivation, but it must come from you for there to be a difference in the way you see things.

This all comes from the everyday life you live, whether that be the food you eat, the people you surround yourself with or your general mindset towards situations.

I always had a maintained level of self-love. This is not saying that I thought I was the most attractive or anything like that. I just mean in a sense of who I am as a person and the traits that I have. I was so sure of myself and the route I was heading towards.

However, I feel like in the last year or two, I fell out of love and perhaps lost that girl. (which is perfectly okay to do).

To be honest, I don’t know what happened to me to realise that all of this was going on. But, it happened, and, in a sense, I am glad that it did.

I started to focus on me again, now for this to truly work – you must just take it one day at a time.

Go to your Spotify and press play on your olden but golden playlist. Take a step back. Try not to get involved in drama, lay it low for a little while.

This genuinely took about six months for me to do and if I’m being honest, I feel like every day you are going to be challenged and learn new things, but this will help you grow.

This might be kind of confusing as I cannot really explain what focusing on yourself entails.

For example – I started to learn Dutch. The perfect example of something that does not happen overnight.

I have been doing on-line classes on ‘Babbel‘ and I also use the app ‘Duolingo’.

I was working at home full-time therefore it did get lonely at times, so if there is a chance you are in the same position or thinking of taking a year out, you will need a project or something to focus on. Helping others not only is something to do, it makes you realise that you are not the only person with problems.

I became a junior leader at ‘Kiltimagh Foroige’ youth club.

 The beauty of this is I was one of those young people when I was 12/13 and now I am going back to an organisation that has given me so many opportunities, along with friends for life.

I have always wanted to empower society or even just young people, and this was a good place to start. Focusing on this made me realise my passions and skills.

I mediate, I bought a little black book last year and I like to write in it whenever I feel like it with my current thoughts, I watched YouTube and I walked a lot with the music on full blast.

I got to think a lot, about me – the people in my life and the just the silliest of stuff.

I had tea and spent so much time with my family. I asked them questions about them growing up, their thoughts and maybe tried to find why I am the way I am.

As opposed to talking about the things like Brexit or Emmerdale, it was nice to get to know the people I have been living with for, so long. Understand them.

It seems so strange and I know so many people are going to read this post and think ‘life is not that deep’. But why not? If you don’t search or ask, you will never find or receive.

Self-love all stems back to the way you think – which comes from things like where you live, the people that are close by and YOU. What I am trying to say is find the things that you like to do and take a minute.

Once I started to get my hands on the wheel in terms of the mental, it was time to focus on the physical.

Disclaimer – I am not by any means saying you need to lose weight or get any kind of surgery. My point is the same throughout this whole post, what you feed yourself with mentally and physically, will radiate throughout towards others and most importantly, to yourself.

I was always interested in fitness as I used to dance when I was younger but, in this time where I feel I had lost myself, I had stopped eating proper foods and exercise.

I got myself back on track within the last three months and I have more fitness goals for this coming year – below is how my body changed for the better with the changes of a healthy eating plan and exercise regime. I feel healthier, look brighter and have more energy.

Now understand I do have balance, I go out and enjoy myself, but I know how to get back to it the next day.

This links back with learning things about myself as I have realised that not only do I like to try new foods, but I love cooking and adding healthy / alternative twists on to everyday dishes.

As mentioned on my last blog post, be easy on yourself. Life is tough, and it is inevitable that bad things are going to happen, but we can ease how we react to them.

Understand that good things take time so not to put massive pressure on oneself.

However, if anything sticks with you have it been this – there is a massive line between being easy on yourself and then having self-pity.

We decide not to do things because life is tough rather than work on something at a slow pace and grow gradually.

Challenge yourself daily. Step out of your comfort zone.

Even if it is something minute such as downloading ‘word of the day’ on your Appstore or listen to a new song you have never heard from a random genre.

Only you can decide to work on things and become a better person. You are the one who works on you to love that person.

I came across this tweet which I love so very much from the page @36mryam.

Hold your ‘such a cliché’ moment because here comes the biggest one of them all (so very true though).

Once you learn to love yourself then you can really love another person, may that be romantically or platonically.

I am by no means one hundred percent there; each day can be challenging in its own way, but life is about learning together.

Best of luck, water your pant and continue to flourish this 2019.

Love,

Lisha x