By Connie Hertz
What does living your best life mean to you?
You have all heard this saying, and Oprah talked about it a while back, quite a bit.
When I think of living my best life, the first thing I think of is living happy, truly happy. Living in joy.
Of course living your best life means something different to everyone. I’m suggesting that the feelings while living your best life, are the same for each of us. Consciously living your best life is not about having it all be perfect. It’s about consciously being on a journey to become the best you possible.
What do you think?
I’m thinking that everyone who can say they are living their best life, would also say they love themselves. It all starts there. It took me many years to truly love myself. I remember there were times years ago, I would do an exercise I learned in my first personal growth class, back in 1974, where I looked in the mirror and said “I love you”.
It was really hard for awhile to do that without crying. I didn’t feel like I loved myself back then. I found it was a process for me to work toward loving me.
Another quality I think a person who is living their best life lives within, is integrity. They do what they say, they are to be trusted, and they are honest.
A person living their best life would also be striving to be of service out in their lives, whatever that looks like for them, and they would be treating others with respect and kindness. Even the people who are creating resistances in their life, meaning the people who don’t treat you kindly or respectfully, are treated by you with kindness and respect.
Now this may not always be easy to pull off! I guarantee, the more you can keep in mind that this person in your life creating the not such fun feelings, and aren’t pleasant to be around, are a person who doesn’t love themselves and are taking all of their discontent out on others around them.
I’ve found the more I love my life, the more I love myself, the better I treat others.
Do you agree?
It’s a process. It takes each of us being deliberate and being conscious, of what we are thinking on a regular basis. It all begins with what we are saying to ourselves. We can each stop and pay attention to how we feel at any given time. Our feelings are our guidance to tell us what are the thoughts we are choosing.
My challenge to you this week is for you to practice the exercise in the mirror daily, and say “I love you” to yourself. Also, pay attention to what you are feeling and it will give you an alert of what you are thinking and creating in your life daily. Then as you notice your thoughts haven’t been positive and are more about what you don’t want in your life instead of what you do want, you can adjust your thinking!
In the photo here, I’m with one of my three sisters, Carol, who is just 18 months younger than me. We’ve consciously been on our own journeys to live our best life.
When you do these exercises I suggested, you will begin to consciously live your best life!
Many blessings,
Connie
I have recently learned about the “mirror work” you reference in your post. It has not been as difficult an exercise for me. I believe this is because I started other types of personal growth methods already. So, adding the mirror work has been solidifying the other work I’ve done to get to this point.
I think each day that I honor myself is a step on the path to living my best life 🙂
Yes, Cindy the more conscious growth methods you are practicing on a regular basis, certainly helps you to love yourself and the mirror work is actually fun! I love how you said you are honoring yourself each day. That really does help you to live your best life!~