Learning Fly

 Love yourself!

 Yes!  For me this is the only thing that cures all problems.  I realized that as I recognized myself and cultivated a love for myself, I started to feel better, more confident, more secure and happy.

 I saw many people with dream jobs, a stable financial situation, relationships flourishing, everyday problems resolving themselves naturally and I wondered why it seemed easy to them and not to me.  The answer was inside me and I couldn't see.  Which of these two situations are you in?

 Learn to fly!  Where to start?

 Perhaps we should initially work on understanding and the dimension of our Self, forgiving ourselves, abandoning criticism, being kind, gentle and patient with our limitations and always listening to our inner voice, it always knows what is best for us.

 When I accepted myself exactly as I was, when I realized what I didn't like about myself, the criticism came in a positive way, indicating the change that should be made, a different way of seeing my questions.  And, when I understood the real meaning of the phrase "Nobody is perfect", from this thought, I stopped comparing myself with other people and looking more inside myself.

 My process started with recognizing and softening the judgments that I made about myself, so each part was valued.  Self-acceptance is considered as an ability to value the good parts, taking into account those others that we need to improve in ourselves and it was, in seeking self-knowledge, that the truth of who I was strengthened me and I was able to take one of the first steps to have  the awareness of what destructive attitudes I would have to abandon.  Maintaining a positive attitude towards ourselves is the only way to provide a starting point for our changes.

 Thus, we understand that self-criticism does not allow us to be able to build a positive inner dialogue, because it destroys all possibilities of developing our potential.

 Do you tend to be very picky with yourself?

 I used to be.  That way, I ended up feeling frustrated and useless for not fulfilling tasks and duties.  When seeking excessively the perfectionism that I built based on what was important to others, I was unable to have a goal or even planning to achieve my own goals, because all my energies were focused on the conflicts to reach them.  Instead of valuing what I already achieved, on my own merit, I was always dissatisfied with the results, which resulted in feelings of failure, depression and anguish.  Today I know that the reference I had to myself was the lack of strengthening my self-esteem and the ability to believe in myself.

 Learning to say "I love myself" is not narcissism, it is the acceptance of being who we are and that love is unconditional.

 Assuming we made mistakes frees us!  We are not born knowing, many things we learn through pain, facing our fears, insecurities, failing to hide from others.  Gradually we are trying to treat ourselves in the same way as we treat others and putting ourselves first.

 And we ask ourselves: Is it selfish to prioritize?

 Saying yes to our needs and focusing on what makes sense to us is not selfishness, but empowerment.  It is establishing and maintaining a connection with our self.

 Selfishness is understood as the habit or attitude of a person putting his interests, opinions, desires and needs first, without any analysis of the situation that may be in question.  Selfishness is being blindfolded to even look at others, the opposite of altruism.  Self-centeredness is nothing more than selfishness in practice.

 Selfish people tend to be cold and indifferent, as they only see their own longings.  If we look at it, many selfish people are actually people with very deep questions about survival and self-preservation, many of these problems developed in childhood, where we often do not feel safe within the family, developing this primitive instinct to prioritize ourselves for  stay alive.

 In adulthood, we have opportunities to review these issues, exchange experiences (as we do together here) and design the improvement we want to see in ourselves.

 In self-love we find the revitalization of our being!  In the conviction of who we are, we give ourselves the right to make mistakes and be imperfect, just as we accept these limitations in other people.

 This is the key to change: establishing empathy and compassion for me and the people around me.

 Let's go together?

 "Learning to put yourself first is neither selfish or proud, it is self-love."  Charlie Chaplin