How much do you love yourself …….. and does it even matter?
How much do you love yourself?
You may think that this is a silly question and what in the world does it have to do with Facial Reflexology? Bear with me because it actually has a strong connection.
Does it really matter what we think of ourselves? I believe very strongly that it does. Many of us are brought up to be the ‘good girl’, the one who always thinks of everyone else first. As children, if we do what is expected of us, achieve what is expected of us and behave how we are expected to behave, we will receive praise and encouragement and in many cases, love.
We grow up as adults who learn to put everyone else first. Our careers, our partners, our children take priority and somewhere along the way, we come in at a very distant last.
Often, it is only when we end up exhausted, burn’t out or fall ill that we start to re-evaluate our lives. This was my story too. I would put everyone else’s needs before my own and going into a profession such as nursing, only added to the carer role I had taken on.
It was only when my own health suffered that I finally started to look at how I treated myself. The first question I asked myself was why? The answer was obvious. Self love! I started to learn more about self development and commenced doing Louise Hay’s ‘Mirror work”. If you’re not familiar with this, you start each day by looking in the mirror, deep into your own eyes and say ‘I love you (insert your name).’ This may feel really silly at first, and I know that I laughed out loud at what I was doing. But I persisted and another time, I cried. I realised that perhaps I didn’t really love myself as much as I had believed.
The more I did this work however, my attitude changed and I started to make changes around how I treated myself and how I let others treat me. I set up strong boundaries around my life, around my business and what I said Yes to. Now I can happily say that I do love myself and my whole life is better for it.
So what’s the connection with Reflexology?
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, different emotions are held in different meridians. If there is an imbalance in a particular meridian, it is often related to a very strong emotion that we have experienced or not yet dealt with. Our face holds these emotion in the various meridians. If we don’t love ourselves deeply, we may experience feelings of grief or loss or we hold fear around our daily lives. We may hold resentment about how others treat us or take advantage of us. Grief and loss are held in the lungs, fear in our kidneys and resentment or frustration in our liver. Holding onto these emotions can lead to disease for they literally ‘eat’ away at us, cause stress and deplete our immune system.
So have a think about how you treat yourself. Do you like yourself and if not, how can you change this? Try and do the ‘Mirror work.’ It may feel silly and it is confronting but it will change your attitude towards yourself. Have a look at your boundaries and what is acceptable to you. If you have always said Yes when you really want to say No, start looking at why? Examine what feels right for you. If you don’t want to say Yes to someone or something, gently turn them down. Ask for help when you need it and don’t feel you need to be Superwoman.
Stop being the ‘good girl’ who is always there for everyone else. Put yourself and your needs first and then you will be in a much better place to serve others.
Start to tell yourself ‘I love You’ and really feel it. It will change your world.
Warmest wishes,
Judy xxx
References: ‘You can Heal your Life’ – Louise Hay, Photo by Jon Ly – Unsplash
Disclaimer: Please note that all information in this article is the opinion of the author and obtained through her research and knowledge and the above references. It is not meant to replace medical advice and a medical opinion should always be obtained for any health condition.
