I suffered from depression for 2 decades. That’s half my life.
When I learned this one thing, EVERYTHING changed.
It hit me hard when I realized that no one was coming to save me. Happiness was a CHOICE, and the only person who could make that choice for me was me.
So many things became crystal clear to me when I recognized that I had the ability to change my life.
I saw that I had been searching far and wide for the love that was inside of me all along.
It wasn’t until I started to reconnect with myself that the cloud of my depression started to lift. For the first time in years, I could see the golden rays of sunshine every single day. Sure, there were cloudy days, but they became more enjoyable and no longer a source of my unhappiness.
You see, when you are disconnected from yourself you become a victim of life. Everything you see outside of yourself controls you: your job, the traffic, your phone, other people, the weather, the state of the world, and so on and so forth.
The Truth (with a capital T) is that everything outside of you is just a reflection of what’s on the inside.
So if there’s chaos on the inside, there’ll be chaos on the outside. When there’s anger on the inside, it reflects with more in life to be angry about. When there’s love on the inside, there’s a magical life created for you to enjoy.
When you look outside of yourself for things to fill the void, you are telling the universe that you are incomplete. That means you will continue to feel incomplete and ‘need’ material things or people to make you feel a certain way.
But what happens when these things or people don’t make you feel that certain way? Do you get mad? Feel hurt? Doubt yourself and go down a shame spiral of guilt, denial, and despair?
This is being a victim of your circumstance. You rely on SOMETHING ELSE to take care of how you feel.
This leaves you with literally ZERO control over your life!
When you look INSIDE, however, that’s where the peace, love, and control will be found.
When I learned that I wasn’t loving myself AT ALL, I took responsibility for it. I took a long hard look at the areas of my life that were a suckfest and had to acknowledge that it was MY actions, words, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that got me to where I was.
I had to own my mistakes and bad decisions, but I didn’t have to do it as a woe-is-me pity party. Nope. I took a different road; an empowered, victor mindset, and found the lessons life was waiting for me to uncover. And there were a lot.
The days that I took a long, hard look at myself in the mirror put me face to face with everything I was avoiding. I was letting my past keep me down because I was ashamed.
But I did the work to face the truth, own my past, acknowledge, accept, integrate, and release the stuck energy, and found that I didn’t have to choose to be the same person I was the day before.
I could choose to be somebody new, at any time, and I didn’t owe anyone an explanation. This is MY life and I get to live it in a way that feels good to me. You have that same freedom.
I started looking at myself in the mirror and telling myself how beautiful I was and how much I loved myself. Let me tell you, it was NOT easy at the start. I did not believe one word I said.
But I kept at it.
And things changed.
I started to find joy in the smallest things. I started feeling differently about myself, my family, my relationships, the world, and about life in general. I felt GOOD pretty much EVERY SINGLE DAY! This was totally new for me, and what an amazing adventure all this love has brought me so far.
Things shifted rapidly. My relationships started to improve, as did my health. I became depression free within 12 months of doing this one thing (along with many other supportive practices over the course of 4 and ½ years of healing).
This whole idea of loving yourself sounded so stupid to me when I started (which is why it took almost 5 years) and the mirror work that Louise Hay suggested in her book You Can Heal Your Life.. yeah, ok lady, forget it.
Until I tried it. And it worked.
And it worked fast.
By turning inward I found everything that I had been looking for. My life did a complete 180 and I’ll never go back. No matter what situation I find myself in, I am able to find the love within me and offer it outwardly. And that feels way better than what was happening before.
So where in your life do you find yourself looking for what you desire outside of yourself?
I invite you to turn inwards, realize you already have it, and move forward with showing up in the world as a force of love.