Are you kind to yourself?
Are you friendly towards yourself and treat yourself like your own
best friend? I doubt it!
Often we have more patience and kindness towards strangers that we
do to ourselves.
 
For most of us, we do not even realise when we chastise ourself,
think horrid things about our looks, achievements or body and spend
our days unfavourably comparing ourself to others.  Beating
yourself up has just become a regular bad habit!
 
Many of us are so used to treating ourselves this way that we don't
know any different.   We rarely praise ourselves for our
achievements or speak lovingly to ourselves on a daily basis.   We
spend wasted time telling ourselves how we are not good enough or
how we wish we could do things differently.
 
Get honest with yourself,  do you treat your friends better than
you treat yourself? When is the last time you spoke encouraging to
yourself or soothed yourself when you were upset or sad? When is
the last time you took some time out to relax or have a massage ?
 
Remember, life is a mirror so if you start to learn to love and
praise yourself, you will receive more of this in your outside
world.   Begin with learning how to be gentle with yourself.   You
deserve kind treatment simply because you are special.  Don't rely
on other people to comfort you, learn to comfort yourself.  
Learning to treat yourself with love and respect is the highest
gift you can give yourself. 
 
ACTION STEPS:
 
Affirm 'I will willing to learn to love myself' - Do this at least ten times a day and in the mirror if you can
Every morning, promise YOURSELF that you will treat yourself with
patience and kindness
Treat youself like you would a small child with heaps of love and encouragement

Each evening, write down ten nice things about yourself.

  
If you want to know more about how to LOVE YOURSELF, Check out the
chapter in my new book - it is filled with fabulous action steps
you can take NOW!  Remember, self love builds up your self esteem but critisism breaks it down.  Try to do at least one thing a day to start to learn to love yourself.  
 

About the Author:
Lisa Phillips is an experienced Life Coach and author based in Sydney, Australia. She has run her own coaching practice for over 9 years and is a regular contributer to many magazines.  Lisa is also an NLP Practitioner.