Jesus came to spread a message of peace, forgiveness and love to everyone and whether or not you celebrate Christmas, this can be a time for you to reflect on your life and look for how you can be more peaceful, forgiving and loving towards yourself and others.
When will you remember that what you do to another, you do to yourself and that what you think about another you think about yourself and when you judge another you judge yourself?
Until you are able to love yourself completely, you will not be able to fully love another no matter how hard you may try.
Many of you seek love from outside of yourself and yet true love comes from within and extends outwards towards others. Until you are able to give yourself love, you will not be able to receive it from others and you will continue to experience a sense of lack and unworthiness.
Marisa’s Musings
Have you ever wondered why so many of us have such difficulty loving ourselves unconditionally? As much as I’ve come a long way over the years towards loving myself, I still have a ways to go. I’m still hard on myself at times and will beat myself up when I’m feeling upset about not living up to my expectations and then I beat myself up more for beating myself up because I think I should know better. I forgive myself for the times I’ve fallen into this trap.
I’m still working on celebrating how far I’ve come instead of looking at how far I think I have yet to go to reach all my goals. For example, I used to hate myself and felt completely unworthy of love and had very low levels of self-confidence and self esteem. I’ve come a long way from that dark place and I’m so grateful for this.
Yes, there are still times when I lack confidence and when my self-esteem takes a nose dive and yet, for the most part, I feel very good about myself and what I’ve created in my life and I am filled with gratitude.
I believe the reason we sometimes have difficulty loving ourselves is because we’ve forgotten who we are and we’re living out our lives with the wounds from our past. During this festive and Holy time, let’s be more conscious of how we’re treating ourselves and do our best to heal our wounds and forgive ourselves for the times we’ve been unloving towards others and towards ourselves. As we heal our wounds and remember more and more about who we REALLY are, we will fall more and more in love with ourselves and this will extend to loving everyone around us more deeply and authentically.
I wish you much peace, love and joy not only during this festive time, but always and until we meet again, I send you love & blessings.
This video moved me to tears and made me think about how often many of us put off taking the time to visit those we love because we think we’re too busy. It’s so easy for us to get caught up in our day to day lives and lose sight of what’s really important…our relationships with our family and friends.
Is there someone in your life that you haven’t seen for a while and who you would miss if they were gone? If so, I invite you to reach out and make time to visit them, in person. Life is a gift and we never know how long any of us will have on this earth. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
With all the bad press out there bombarding us with news, images and videos about all the horrible things people are doing to one another around the world, let’s remember that there are people everywhere who, in the past and in the present, reach out to others in need and spread love, not hate or fear.
The problem is, we don’t often hear about the good news, only the bad. When we get caught up in the negative stories shared through multi-media channels, it often has a negative effect on us. We might find ourselves judging others who are being portrayed as the protagonists or we might feel depressed or fearful about how the events in the world might cause us, or those we love, to suffer in some way.
You’ve probably heard the expression, “What You Focus On Expands.” If you believe this to be true, I invite you to be mindful of how you feel when you watch or read the news. If you notice yourself feeling anxious, angry or judgmental towards others, remind yourself that if you choose to focus on these negative thoughts and feelings, you’ll attract more negativity into your life and your relationships.
Fortunately, we get to choose what to focus on. This doesn’t mean we’ll never feel any negative emotions or have negative thoughts. Nor does it mean we should suppress these thoughts or feelings. What it means is that as soon as we become aware of what we’re focusing on, we can make a conscious choice to simply observe our thoughts and feelings rather than grabbing a hold of them and spiraling downwards. We can also choose to turn our attention to something more positive and uplifting.
If you think there’s nothing positive going on around you, think of a few things you are truly grateful for. Gratitude has a way of lifting our Spirits and making us feel better.
When we feel good on the inside, we pass this positive energy onto those around us, causing a ripple effect.
