Loving Yourself Weekends Days Three-Five

One post to cover the weekend and Monday.

Apologizing.

I find myself apologizing a lot, and for things that I don't really need to apologize for. For instance, I sometimes apologize for only ordering Diet Coke when I'm out with my friend who drink. Like my Diet Coke is offending the server.

Sometimes I apologize for the way I explain things, or for sharing my opinion.

I don't need to apologize for expressing my opinion. I caught myself doing this over the weekend.

I'm all for realizing you need to apologize when it's appropriate. But there is no need to apologize for being who you are.

Side note: I've got a massive headache today. So since I'm loving myself right now, I'm going to take some time off and try to get rid of this.

And for your viewing pleasure Beyonce... she goes hard and I love to watch her perform.

Loving Yourself Day Two

Be Kind.

This is what I've been thinking about today. I stayed up late last night, but I was having a great time. Normally I'd be a little bit mad at myself. Consequently I woke up 30 minutes later than I intended, usually I'd be mad at myself.

Today I was a bit more forgiving.

I hear myself talking to my friends about the way they speak about their bodies or personalities. I feel so sad when I hear how hard they are on themselves, and how they choose to say incredibly damaging things about themselves. They would never say those things to me. They are forgiving of my weaknesses and shortcomings, and shouldn't we be just as kind and forgiving of ourselves.

Hi. My name is Jillian and I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters anyone????

I assure you I can be a lot easier on myself. I don't think there's anything wrong with high expectations, but I need to recognize my own limitations.

Loving Yourself Day One

I have some pretty amazing visiting teachers who left me with a very interesting challenge. They challenged me to spend an entire week loving myself. Where my biggest focus is on loving me. I think that we so often spend time trying to think of others and being unkind to ourselves, that we forget the importance of loving yourself.

I wrote myself a little not on my mirror... and that was about it. But I'm trying again. So I'm going to blog about my results of the week of loving myself.

So first things first, Megan told me to write a list of the things that I love about myself. I tried to do it last week and I found that it was really hard. I once listened to a lesson given by an LDS therapist and she pointed out that our brains are incredible. When we tell our brain to think of all the things that are wrong with us, it can keep going and going with lists of what is wrong with us. But we can also ask it to think of all the things we love about ourselves. So, that is what I asked of my brain.

So in completely honesty of my week of loving myself, Day one:

Ability to love
Physical strength
Emotional Strength
My waist
Loyalty
Eyes
Style/clothes
Kindness
Friends
Family
Education
Testimony 
Faith
Ability to remind people of who they are
Desire to serve
Stubbornness (yep... I'm weird)
Voice of reason
Dancing like a crazy person
Who I am becoming
Ability to Forgive
Desire to continue even when I fall short
Divinity
Pixie cut
Cheek bones
My imperfection
Recognition of my faults
Love of Sports
Athleticism
Baking
Astronomy
Passion
Desire to consumer knowledge
Knowing/sharing random facts
Desire to be better
My measuring stick (occasionally I lose track of the measuring stick I like to use, that of the Lord's, and I get all sorts of confused and start using other people's but I love it when I am using the right one).

Now that you've listened to me dote on myself, what are some things that you love about yourself?

Gatsby

It doesn't come out until December. How terribly unfair.

Happy Weekend

I've got an exciting weekend ahead of me. One of my best friends is getting married later today!

I can't wait.

Sunday is Mother's Day. I'm looking forward to spending time with my mom.

I wanted to share this lovely song with you. Calee is a friend from BYU's sister. Of all the things that I knew about Kristina, Calee's sister, I always knew about the wonderful family she came from. The family lost their mother a little while ago. A trial I can't imagine facing right now.

I may have cried a little bit when I first heard this song. If you want to learn a little bit more about the family or Calee's journey writing and record a CD go here.