I love...

I love you. You love me. We’re a happy family…. Ok so I am not going to go into a purple dinosaur sing a lot with you, but what we are going to talk about is love. One of the things we in America are raised by is the “Golden Rule” to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Though we have taken that in some respects to an extreme and we do not put ourselves first, for some we are seldom put ourselves first.

Even if we have not been in a plan, we have heard someone joke about or make reference to the oxygen masks coming down and to make sure you have your mask on before helping someone else. In short, if you ain’t breath’n you ain’t help’n anyone. Even the person we love. Yet it seems ok in day to day life to put ourselves last. Yes the “Golden Rule” says that we to help others, but it does not say to help others and then help yourself. It says not to treat someone as you would treat yourself.

Why would you treat someone else better than you treat yourself? It happens and we have all done it. Though I am not suggesting that you change how you live and interact with others all together, what I am asking is to look at how you treat yourself.

Look at it this way:

You just barked at your BFF and called them a lazy fat-butt (keep’n in PG) and a good for nothing slob. That they do not deserve to be treated fairly because they did not get the laundry done or the kids ready for bed in a timely manner, and then do not feed them all day because they have to play catch up. Force them to eat a greasy burger fixed by a stranger in a kitchen you may or may have never stepped foot in and ask them to eat it really fast before you get to pick up the kids, because you have just denied them food all day.

I could give a scenario all day of examples of how we treat ourselves, but I will save you from that. I will however ask you to start treating yourself with kindness and treating yourself as you would someone else. In the end if you do not treat yourself proper, then you really are not giving someone else all that you can. Because while you are standing there helping someone cross the street you may be thinking your stomach is growling or feeling bad about yourself because you did not have time to fix dinner last night.

One thing I have learned over the past year is that the more fitness and health that I gain the more easily I am able to take care of things at home. Then I am not so exhausted afterward and I am able to actually enjoy the home or yard I just worked in.

Time has passed already since New Year’s Day, so I ask you on this Valentine’s Day to love yourself and make a commitment to yourself to love yourself. To see you are as worthy as your friend or a stranger.

Happy Valentine’s Day – Be your Valentine!

—Be kind to yourself. You are worth it.—