Loving Yourself

Relationships are fundamental to my faith. I'm that kind of person - I get my energy from being with others and frequently do my thinking out loud. Not in a talking to myself kind of way but in a bounce ideas around kind of way. I also believe that what Jesus meant when he said that we had to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength and love your neighbour as yourself." Be in a positive loving relationship with God, with others and with yourself.

In my experience it is often the last one, loving ourselves, that we are not so good at. It is the one which gets overlooked and if we do dare to try to love ourselves we are shouted down for being arrogant or too self obsessed. Don't get me wrong, that can happen, but I think it is much rarer than we assume and I suspect it is often a defence mechanism when we actually don't like ourselves that much. 

So how would it look if we did love ourselves? What would we see? Well for me there is something about wanting good things for ourselves and wanting to grow and develop ourselves. That can take all sorts of forms, education, personal hobbies and interests, mindfulness, meditation, exercise and fitness. One area I have been focusing on is exercise and I use http://www.sweat.fitness/ to help achieve this. Essentially I lack self discipline so I need to exercise with others who help motivate me. I also need trainers who take a wholistic approach and an interest in me as a person not just as a body to improve. The guys at Sweat Southsea led by Luke Newton do this incredibly well and I cannot recommend them highly enough. I'm not on any kind of commission - I am simply a client of theirs but I think I could also say they are my friends as that is the kind of vibe they create. 

I'm not a 'born agan' exerciser so won't go on about it or them but simply want to make two simple suggestions about ways in which you might start to love yourself if you feel you need to. Firstly visit their website or better yet visit them - they really are all extremely friendly and would do all they could to help you make a start or a change. Secondly head along to Castle Field this Saturday 4th June to the Southsea Fitness Festival which they organise. There are a whole host of people exhibiting, displaying and taking part. There will be more ideas for things you can do to love yourself than you can shake a big stick at, there may even be some big stick shaking going on! Visit the website http://www.fitnessfestivals.com/ to find out more or watch this video:

https://youtu.be/v2SM-Xvl9Vc 

I resisted doing anything about exercise or fitness and always had a string of excuses until a very wise man (probably not been called that often Neil Sharky White have you!? Incidentally he also runs an epic gym -  http://www.personaltrainer-petersfield.co.uk/) said 'But this is for you and how much are you worth?' We are worth much more than we think we are, to God, to others and also to ourselves and so however we do it, whether it is physical, mental or spiritual, or ideally a combination of all three - let's love ourselves a little more. I have a strong suspicion that if we are able to do that then we may find we are able to love others more as well.