When you love who you are, it ripples outward. Being optimistic, upbeat, and having a great attitude not only improves your day but it improves the day of your co-workers, your family, your dog, your cat, your plants, and anyone else you might see today.
Think about it—when you are around someone who is fun, upbeat, positive, and uplighting, it’s refreshing. It’s one of the last truly renegade moves we have as a culture—to love yourself. It’s so much more fun to work with someone (or be parented by someone, or be friends with someone, fill in the blank …) when they are mentally and emotionally healthy.
Self-discovery through therapy is a path toward creating an enjoyable inner life because healing is often not something we can do alone. We are highly social beings, by coming to a therapist, we learn things about ourselves we would not have uncovered otherwise. When we’ve been swimming in the fish tank our whole lives, it can be hard to see new possibilities elsewhere.
We look at our dreams (real and imagined), our hopes, our sadness, our traumas, and our pain. We look beyond this season of life and into the chapters that unfold before us, including the legacy we leave behind.
Because your imprint on the world leaves fingerprints long after you are gone.
I have had many wonderful teachers, mentors, advocates, and friends whom I call upon when the going gets tough. Even though they might not be here IRL, I know what they would say. I know them. I know their approach, their perspective, and their love, which lives on through me.
Love is a boundless thing. It knows no limitations, it has no time stamp, it can begin as a small seed and grow through countless generations providing solace for those who happen by.
It is our job to understand where we might need help loving ourselves better in order to instill a better future for all those who come after us.
It is also our responsibility to take care of our mental health for all those present in our lives today.
When you embark on the work of creating a lovely inner life, know that you are not only showing up for yourself but for all those around you. When you begin to feel better, you do better, and you become a model for others to embark on their own path. And that is something to be proud of.
Thoughts & Reflections
- Write down how you can better show up for yourself
- Is there a past version of you that needs you now?
- How can you find someone to guide you down the path of self-discovery?
- What do you need to create better life today?
- You deserve it!
