A feel good post

Today we're going to talk about self love.  Now, don't start looking around anxiously, I'm not going to start talking about THOSE things.  This is a family-friendly blog!  I know of some amazing bloggers that do go there... but as of now, I'm not one of them.

Instead, we're talking about the self-talk that all of us engage in on a daily basis.  I started realizing that I could go for days at a time without having said a single nice thing to myself.  That was troublesome.  If I am not in love with myself, showing myself kind and loving compassion, then who will?  And if by chance someone does show it, how likely am I to believe it?  From that thought, the 31 days of self love challenge was born.  I challenged myself to say one unique thing to myself each day for 31 days straight, and post each and every last one of them on Instagram.

Sometimes, it was the only kind thing I said to myself in a day.  Other times, I was overflowing with love.  But regardless, I had to do it.  I knew that in doing so, I would start to reform my inner monologues.  I would stop speaking so negatively to myself, and start focusing more and more on the good things.  The successes.  And along the way, I told myself some really fantastic things that I would like to share with you today.

It has been really helpful to have these posted around our apartment.  You can't go anywhere without seeing one of my little post-its, many held on by a piece of tape.  They are my moment to moment reminders that love is more powerful than any other tool when it comes to behavior change.  They are my reminders that I am reaching for the next best version of myself, and that each day, I can do great things.

I would be remiss if I didn't take a minute to thank 2 brave women for joining me on this journey.  Nay and Andrea agreed to take the challenge with me, and I have to say that their posts kept me motivated, uplifted, and inspired the entire month.  You ladies are true champions, and I love you both dearly.

Now, I know some of you have been wondering if all of this madness would end on January 31.  Well, it isn't.  Nope.  I have another love challenge.  This month's love challenge is to make a concerted effort to give the special guys in our lives a little love note every day.  I'm not making the "no repeats" rule for this one, because how creative we can be isn't the point.  The point is that sometimes, we forget to speak the most love to those that we love the most.  Isn't it funny how that works?  I'm challenging us all to be intentional in the giving of love.

I have no designs on posting each and every one of these notes for you guys on twitter and instagram... they may end up being too personal for that.  But I will be posting some of them, and even if you don't do the whole month, I hope you will post one or two as well.  I'm going to be hash-tagging my posts with #dailylovenotes if you want to follow along.

Holy buckets, this post turned into a novel.  I'll leave you now, hoping you made it through to this point.  Have a fantastic weekend, my friends.  I hope you remember to speak lots of love.