Aloha Tasi

Tiny Buddha is one of my favorite sites founded by Lori Deschene.  I also have her book entitled Tiny Buddha, Simple Wisdom for Life's Hard Questions. Lori collaborated with people all over the world through Twitter to find out how others would answer the really tough question. The website Tiny Buddha is a storehouse of great articles by lots of great writers (follow the links for more on each) on all sorts of personal issues.  The stories are real and have lots of heart and meaning. Since I am on a quest to love myself unconditionally I must post from Tiny Buddha! Thought this would be a good one for today. 21 Tips to Release Self-Neglect and Love Yourself in Action By Tess Marshall “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh The most important decision of your life, the one that will affect every other decision you make, is the commitment to love and accept yourself . It direc...

I love the saying that Joy is an inside job, but now I hear that Forgiveness is an inside job too!  This is an article from Psychology Today , a little old but timeless none the less and all the links still work.           Your Trump Card: Self-Love             Dig and honor yourself—self-love is the first step to lasting change.  By Hara Estroff Marano , published on November 01, 2002 - last reviewed on June 17, 2008  10 in Share Having a glowing vision of the future helps you tackle the core beliefs about yourself—such as doubts about your own worthiness for success—that have held you back until now. So as you peel back the curtains around your core self, you become ready to tap the source of all change and success—self-love, and forgiveness for past failures. Self-love doesn't happen by luck or the grace of God. You have to create it. T...

Something new! Affirmations! I love affirmations.   I found these at Mind Body Green. 10 Daily Affirmations for Self Love Affirmations are an amazing tool that are underrated in my opinion. I have benefited exceptionally from repeating affirmations even though it took me a few years to decide to write some out! I thought why not, there is nothing to lose! When you say an affirmation you are sending a message to your unconscious mind and the universe. You are focussing your attention to what you want, rather than what you don’t want and your unconscious mind and the universe will then go towards bringing to you that which you are asking for. It may sound too good to be true, but it works as long as you practice! Your unconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between your reality and your imagination. Affirmations are a great way of re-programming and focussing your mind so you can eliminate negative patterns of behavior. When you know how to work the unc...

Just read a really great article from Linda Lochridge Hoenigsberg that helps you to create your own affirmation for times when your inner bully is badgering you. It's called Hold That Thought. Here's how: The Space In Between First, identify a negative thought you use to bully yourself. Change that thought to a more positive, truthful thought (an affirmation). For instance, let’s use the thought “Nothing ever works out for me.” Let’s change that to, “ Things work out for me much of the time. ” Close your eyes and picture the first word of that affirmation in front of your eyes. Think of the word “ Things .” Next, imagine you have moved the word “ Things ” over to the left. Now imagine the word “work” right in front of your eyes. Now move the word “work” over to the right. You now have both words, “Things work” sitting on either side of your head. There is a blank space in between, right in front of your eyes. Be in the empty space that is in front of your eyes....

You can tell I love Leo Babauta! Can’t help it. He speaks to me.   Like all the times I’ve been derailed by choice or by forces beyond my control. It happens! It happens a lot.   Sometimes it’s hard to be really realistic with yourself. I needed to hear this today.   How to Stop Your Habit Changes From Getting Derailed   By Leo Babauta Many times when we try to make a good change in our lives, it gets derailed early on by something out of our control. Let’s say you start a diet, and your daughter makes some great vegan cupcakes and you want to support her efforts, and so you eat some … and this exception causes you to say, “screw it” and you eat some other unhealthy foods later in the day, and then the next day. Or you’re trying to think positively, and so you go out of your way to be nice to someone with whom you’re not on good terms … and they snub you, causing you to go down a spiral of negative thoughts. How do you stop the negative spiral? How do ...

As I re-read the ten commandments of self love I realize that #7, which is; I shall forgive myself when I make a mistake, could be a whole lot easier to deal with if you had no regrets. Here's an interesting article from the many at  Zenhabits .  This one is by Leo Babatua on Why We Have Regret . I'm posting the portion of Leo's article that deals with letting go of regret here: (but really it's so good you should read the whole thing, check the link above) In examining why we have regret, and why it’s so hard to let go, we can see a couple of root causes that we can address: We compare past choices to an ideal. We have an ideal identity that conflicts with the idea of the bad choice. These both revolve around ideals, which are not reality but our fantasies of how we’d like reality to go. They’re made up, and not helpful. In this case, these ideals are causing us anguish. So the practice is to let go of the ideals, and embrace reality . Here’s the reali...

I found this while looking for more ideas for self love. There's 31 days of great ideas for loving your self, see below. 10 COMMANDMENTS OF SELF-LOVE 1.   I shall lovingly accept myself as I am right now. 2.   I shall appreciate all the beauty that makes me who I am. 3.   I shall regularly give thanks for all of my blessings. 4.   I shall trust in my ability to take care of myself. 5.   I shall not criticize myself. 6.   I shall not criticize others. 7.   I shall forgive myself when I make a mistake. 8.   I shall be kind to others, without sacrificing my own needs. 9.   I shall take responsibility for my life. 10. I shall love myself to the best of my ability. Read more here: 31 Days of Self-Love - Beliefnet    Peace. Ellie

Here's a few ideas about how to get to Self Love and the importance of Self Love.  A few steps to help you along the way.  Hope you enjoy this page. The Online Meditation Center's Lecture Hall Peace. Ellie

Here's a great guide for writing a love letter to yourself from Christipher Germer, PhD.of Mindful Self Compassion . I found this in the Resources section, there are other handouts that you can look at too.  But for now I'm posting this one. COMPASSIONATE LETTER TO MYSELF Everybody has something about themselves they don’t like; something that causes them to feel  shame, insecure, or not “good enough.” Please think of an  issue you have that tends to make you  feel bad about yourself (a mistake you made, your appearance, relationship issues, etc.)  Now think about an imaginary friend who is unconditionally wise, loving and compassionate.  Imagine that this friend can see all your strengths and weaknesses, including what you don’t like  about yourself. This friend recognizes the limits of human nature, and is kind, accepting, and  forgiving.  Write a letter to yourself from the perspective of this imaginary friend, f...

“When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier.” ― Diane Von Furstenberg “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” ― C.G. Jung “If you celebrate your differentness, the world will, too. It believes exactly what you tell it—through the words you use to describe yourself, the actions you take to care for yourself, and the choices you make to express yourself. Tell the world you are one-of-a-kind creation who came here to experience wonder and spread joy. Expect to be accommodated. (11)” ― Victoria Moran , Lit From Within: Tending Your Soul For Lifelong Beauty    Peace. Ellie

I've been spending some time looking at quotes and saying on the subject of Self-Love.  I'm writing love letters to myself every morning and these are food for thought.  I like what both these people are saying and hope that I can incorporate the ideas into my life.   “The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I'm not going to let myself pull me down anymore.” ― C. JoyBell C I love this quote because it directly addresses a promise I made to myself a few days ago.  No longer will I turn my back on me just because some one else has a need that "seems" more important than mine. It isn't! That doesn't mean I can't help some one out; it just has to make sense for me first. We often have a diluted sense of self; we do not see the magnitude of the greatness inside of us. As a result, most people live within the parameters of the lowest part of their life; they dwell in the basement of their capability. When you have a small picture ...

I decided a few days ago I needed to get back to unconditional self love.  I promised myself that I would write myself a love letter each morning to keep the idea alive.  Well it seems that when you chose a path the universe ultimately helps, no matter what that choice is. This morning the very first email I got was from the Change Blog . It was so relevant to me I had to print it out for my journal.  If you are wanting more self love please read this article "4 Steps to Giving Yourself the Love You Never Got" You'll be glad you did.

I just found Gala Darling on Jonathan Fields site...Wow! Both these people are awesome and thought provoking in such positive ways. Now, I am moved to create some love letters to myself, because when I stop and really think about how I quit smoking and lost 80 pounds it was because I was on a vigilant self-love wave. I found giving up cigarettes and food easy because I wanted to show myself how much I really cared.  I was totally willing to do what ever it took to prove to myself that I truly loved myself more that anything else, even food and cigarettes! So I'm creating love letters to myself to help me lose the 40 pounds that I've gained back because I'm so worth it.  I deserve to be healthy and slim. To look nice and wear the clothes I love. Those are excellent ways to feel good and confidant in my skin.  I hope that you get motivated and get on the self love path...you deserve it!