You Must Love Yourself Before Anyone Else can Love You

     Have you ever heard the expression, "you must love yourself first to find love"?  This isn't just some "Woo Woo Shit" that some hippie made up.  Its absolutely true.  Think about it for a second, if you don't love yourself how can you spread love to those around you?  How can they feel you love yourself?  Here I'll talk about ways to love yourself more so that you can spread and attract love in your life, weather it be better family and friend relationships, finding the love of your life, or spreading love to random strangers.
Do kind things for people.
     Random acts of kindness never hurt.  In fact, they are not only good for the other person but help you feel good about yourself.  Even if at first or before you do it it seems like a waste of time because you feel you are receiving nothing, in the end you always feel better about it, and on the inside you know you helped someone, whether it be big or small you will still feel good about whatever you did, if its holding a door for someone in a wheelchair or helping at a homeless shelter for a week.  I just started reading the book "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz, and in the second chapter, towards the end, he states "It's better to give before you receive, and never keep score". and also states by filling your actions with generosity, the rewards will follow.
     Let's keep in mind the small thing of holding the door for someone handicap.  It may be something small, but your not trying to take from this person.  Thats what makes you feel good on the inside and about yourself.  You helped someone without trying to take from them or be greedy, you did something out of the kindness of your heart that made their day.  Which subconsciously you know how much that helped them and are able to feel happy about yourself for doing something good for someone else.
How to love yourself right now.
    There are many ways to love yourself right now.  Here I'm going to share with you what works for me to love myself more everyday.  This will also make you more confident in who you are.  We all idolize people, or at least are brought up to.  everything we are surrounded by on television or in any media for that matter is showing us what we don't have.  In this time and day it can be hard to have confidence in yourself without an awakening.  So lets get into how to love and have confidence in yourself.
    The first thing that helped, kind of goes hand in hand with another blog post where I wrote about gratitude.  We are, as I said brought up in a world where we are surrounded by things we don't have in the media, and are told to focus on that, while nobody ever talks about what you have and will always have with you ever second of your life.  That is your life.  Now I understand right now if you have insecurities it may be hard to overcome them, as we all have them, big or small.  Some of them we can change some of them we can't.  Here I'm going to talk about the ones we can change, because once you fix them the ones you can't change can go away as well.
     What insecurities can you fix and how?  The easiest ways are by sculpting the body you want, as you are the artist of your life.  Being overweight is probably one of the biggest things I see holding people back from loving themselves.  Even when I was overweight I remember I waled with less confidence than I do now.  Maybe you look down at he ground when you walk to avoid eye contact with a stranger.  If your an introvert like me this is very common.  I used to always keep my eyes or head down.  This is not only bad for your neck but also lowers confidence.  I now walk with my eyes straight forward, and yes if people are around I still feel awkward if they walk past but with your head up and eyes forward you can walk with confidence and a smile, and if the people walking by is awkward for you you can keep your eyes straight ahead to avoid eye contact but still keep your head up.  
     The thing you can practice right now is to focus on 3 things physically or mentally about yourself that you love.  It could be your eyes, hair, how your good in a certain subject, even the way you blink, whatever it is find 3 things to love about yourself and write them down.  The next day add something else and continue each day.  If you can find something new everyday to love about yourself, soon there will be infinite love for yourself and others will feel that off of you, which can also help lift their state.
Final thoughts.
    Before you attract the great, like minded people in your life you must first love yourself and have full confidence in everything you do.  Not only will it help for the people in your life but also in how big your goals are and if you can actually accomplish them.  Loving yourself will make it easier for you to also forget the ones that tell you that you can't do something, because having the love for yourself means you have full trust that whatever you want to do you can do if you put yourself up to it.

Go out, live life to the fullest,

Brian