Day 4 - self love
I think today's page is the one that has gotten me most excited so far - not one to simply sit about dreaming and expecting things to change, I love action and today is all about starting to put this idea of self love in to practice!
It tasks me to start using some visualisation techniques. Which is something I feel very drawn to at the minute - having spent some time getting excited explaining the benefits of vision boards yesterday. It certainly seems that what you send out comes back with abundance!
It suggests that simply visualising isn't quite enough - that you need to feel emotions related to what you want to truly embed the ideas to make them a reality, rather than just sit down and imagine and then leave it alone hoping you have done enough. Now this is something I am yet to try - I truly believe in the power of visualisation, I had the poster of my dream show of 20 years, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat up on my mirror and then I got it! I mean there was a little hard work involved to, but focussing on what I truly wanted every day had such power in drawing it to me. It is something I could spout on about for days!
Now the self love challenge asks me to imagine myself braver, as who I want to be, self loving, without doubt and as the most confident version of myself. I have to immerse myself in this state and allow it to wash over me.
Try it - how does it work for you? Do you instantly doubt its worth and feel a bit silly? Or does it seem somehow empowering, just feeling what you want to? Try and accept the challenges you find in this and keep searching.
If you find this a bit tricky -think of a time when you did feel this way and allow those memories to wash over you to start this loving thought. Remember the way your heart danced and use all your senses to fully transport yourself back to this time. What could you see? feel? Was the sun shining? What could you hear? What were people saying to you? and maybe in this instance a little more importantly what were you saying to yourself?
Ask yourself in this confident self-loving state
What habits do I currently have that don't fit this loving self?
What can I do differently to better support my loving state?
Now for me it really reminds me to drop my rather beastly inner critic - that voice that doesn't actually do anything to bolster me up, or help me grow - instead just drains the life and hope out of me. My favourite way to help drop this critic is inspired by an idea from Harry Potter - bear with if you aren't an advocate of the Wizarding world. In book 3, in Professor Lupin's defence against the dark-arts class to deal with Boggarts -(creatures that turn in to your worst fears to frighten and potentially immobilise you) he suggests the way to deal with them is to make they seem silly - a spider with roller skates that can't actually scuttle in their traditional way, or a person who scares you dressed in the most ridiculous fancy attire you can imagine to weaken its impact. I therefore like to imagine what my critic looks like and add a silly wig, or a big squashy nose and therefore reduce its strength and power by making it rather comic. Once the critic is removed from the equation I can then use some positive and strengthening affirmations to build myself up! Affirmations for me take the shape of a mantra, and encapsulate the feelings I want to have. "I love and accept myself as I am and as I grow on my journey" One thing to remember when creating affirmations, from speaking to a friend earlier; is our brains only work in positives. - "Don't think of the pink elephant, whatever you do don't think of the pink elephant" - what is the first thing that pops in to your mind? The pink elephant purchance? The best way to not think of the pink elephant is to focus on the blue giraffe instead. Therefore instead of an affirmation including any sort of negative like "I am not concerned with how other view me" think of what you might be hoping to gain from that - able to be fully myself at all times and focus on that instead.
The idea prompts me to add some feeling in to my next vision boards, add in something that not only helps me see what I want - but also feel it. So it is more than just a few pictures - and becomes something I can emotionally connect to it too.
What thoughts do you want to have about yourself? I shall leave you with that to ponder on until tomorrow!