I Love and Approve of Myself

Saying "I love and approve of myself" in the mirror is one of the hardest things I have ever done. I have been doing this for years. I've been more serious about it for the past six months. Some days I believe it. Some days, I'm like, ::eye-roll:: "whatever."

Why am I bringing this up? And why is self-love the cornerstone of my belief system? Because what we think of ourselves becomes the truth for us.

From You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay:
Some of the ways we don't love ourselves:
- We scold and criticize ourselves
- We mistreat our bodies with food, alcohol, and drugs
- We choose to believe we are unlovable
- We are afraid to charge a decent price for our services
- We procrastinate on things that would benefit us
- We live in chaos and disorder
- We create debt and burdens
- We attract lovers and mates who belittle us

If we deny our good in anyway, it is an act of not loving ourselves.

The clip below is less than three minutes long. It's Louise explaining the power of  saying, "I love and approve of myself." If it resonates with you, let me know.



Love,
Althea ◦

I Love and Approve of Myself

Why Can't I Eat Whatever I Want?

The not so long answer:

Again, you can absolutely eat whatever you want. You have free will. You may be one of lucky people who can do that and live to be 105 years old. I read about a brother who was over 100 and his secret to long life was drinking Jack Daniels everyday.

Good for him, I say.

For the rest of us, even those blessed with the genetics of longevity, pay a heavy price for eating whatever we want. In my family, it's been soul food. I have watched my relatives die from Alzheimer's, diabetes, obesity, and every cancer you can name.

If you're a subscriber to my blog, then you are already interested in health. You already know that food has the power to slowly kill, as well as the power to quickly heal the body. And that is why, if you want to live your best life, then eating whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, is not the best choice.

Please know that you are not alone. It may seem that everyone else can eat what they want. That's not the case. I hear people's emotional battles with food almost everyday on my job, and in the emails from you all.

Eat what makes your body, mind, and spirit perform at optimal levels. And seek therapy if the emotional struggle is too much to handle alone.

Health is holistic. It's:
-good relationships with family and friends
-feeling good about your work
-restful sleep
-spiritual connection
-purpose
-living in alignment with your values
-lots of love, especially for yourself.

Focus on all of those things, rather than just the food you're eating.

Love,
Althea ◦

Why Can't I Eat Whatever I Want?

Self Love + Simplicity

I’m still alive ya’ll 😊. Thank you to everyone who wrote me to ask how I was doing and if I’d ever blog again. I haven’t written anything since Prince died in April 2016. The past five years have been quite challenging, on every level. Grief is a real thing. I totally fell off. I have fought hard to get back to Althea. As I blog, I’ll share my experiences.

The biggest two lessons I learned from that time are 1) love yourself and life flows much smoother, and 2) a simple life leads to clarity, self-knowledge, and purpose.

My biggest challenge is that I distract myself with food and over-spending. If I’m emotionally unbalanced, angry, frustrated, unhappy, etc., I am going to eat or spend money. I’ve been so out of whack that I didn’t care what I was eating. That has led me to be 60 pounds overweight. I have lost weight, but I haven’t been consistent. I’m a stress-eater. No stress, no overeating. Stress = overeating. My biggest expenditure is food. Wegman’s grocery is my second home.

I am healing these dual distractions at the same time. They are not different. They are same. They are different manifestations of a mind that searches for distraction. With all the work I have done on me, I realized I wasn’t loving myself. I wasn’t paying attention. I can’t spend nor eat my way into the life I want to live.

I have certain goals that I want to share with you all, which will help keep me on task. I’ll get more specific later.

HEALTH

·         Sixty pound weight loss by March 7, 2019 (my birthday)

     

HOUSE/MONEY

·         Declutter my apartment. DONE!

·         Create an emergency fund. DONE!

·         Save $100 a month until I reach my goal number through October 2019.

·         Create a shopping ban.

·         Pay off all consumer debt by October 2020.

·         Pay back all people I owe money by March 2021.

·         Save six months’ worth of salary (not sure how long that takes.)

CAREER

·         Start Mocha Angels Yoga and Massage YouTube Channel by March 7, 2019.

·         Resume daily Mocha Angel messages on Facebook and Twitter.

KIDS

·         Clinically document massage and energy work treatments on my kids to track their progress.

(In case you missed it on Facebook, I did manage to graduate from massage therapy school. I graduated in July. I’ll be a licensed massage therapist by October/November. 😊)

I’ll blog at least twice a week. On the 1^st of every month, I’ll report my progress toward my goals.

I’m learning to love me. I have cared for and served others personally and professionally for decades. At 46, I’m finally taking care of me.

Also, I am retiring from doing intuitive readings. If you’d like a reading from me, this is the moment to get it. I’m removing the PayPal buttons from my website on September 15.

Thank you for reading. I’m excited about this next phase in my life.

◦

Self Love + Simplicity