You are always, always loved and protected!

You are good enough!

You deserve to live a wonderful life and so it is…

 10 Ways to Love Yourself (Louise Hay)

1. Stop criticizing yourself:

If we tell ourselves that we are okay, no matter what is going on, we can make changes in our lives easily. It is when we make ourselves bad that we have great difficulty. Our ability to adapt and flow with the process of life is our power.
Think for a moment about the words you use when scolding yourself or some of the phrases you hear when you were small: stupid, bad boy, bad girl, useless, careless, dumb, ugly, worthless, sloppy, dirty, etc. Are these the same words you use now when describing yourself?
There is a tremendous need to build self-worth and value in ourselves, because when we feel not good enough, we find ways to keep ourselves miserable. We create illness or pain in our bodies; we procrastinate about things that would benefit us.
We are all insecure in some ways because we are human. Let release the need to be perfect. Having to be perfect only puts immense pressure on ourselves, & it prevents us from looking at areas of our lives that need healing. Instead, we could discover our creative distinctions, our individualities, & appreciate ourselves for the qualities that makes us unique.
   2. Stop scaring yourself:
Many of us terrorize ourselves with frightful thoughts & make situations worse than they are. We take a small problem and make it into a big monster. It's a terrible way to live, always expecting the worst out of life.
Examples: Someone makes a remark at work, and you begin to think you're going to be fired. You build these paralyzing thoughts in your mind. Remember, these frightening thoughts are negative affirmations. OR, people who are ill often visualize the worst or they are immediately planning their funerals. OR, someone doesn't call you immediately, and you decide that you are totally unlovable and you'll never have another relationship again, feeling abandoned and rejected.
If you find yourself habitually reviewing a negative thought or situation in your mind, find an image of something you really would like to replace it with. It could be a beautiful view, or a sunset, or flowers, a sport, or anything you love. Use that image as your switch-to image every time you find that you are scaring yourself. Say to yourself, "No, I'm not going to think about that anymore. I'm going to think about sunsets, roses, Paris, yachts or waterfalls, or whatever your image is." If you keep doing this, eventually you will break the habit.

   3. Be gentle and kind and patient with yourself:
 Impatience is a resistance to learning. We want the answers without learning the lesson or doing the steps that are necessary. Think of your mind as if it were a garden. If you take loving care and attention to this garden, it gradually keeps improving and will blossom. The same with your mind, you select nurtured thoughts & with patience they grow and contribute to creating the garden of experiences you want."

   4. Be kind to your mind:
 Let's not hate ourselves for having negative thoughts. We can think of our thoughts as building us up rather than beating us up. We don't have to blame ourselves for negative experiences, but can learn from these experiences. Being kind to ourselves means we stop all blame, all guilt, all punishment, and all pain. Relaxation is absolutely necessary for tapping into the Power within, because if you are tense & frightened, you shut off your energy. As you become tense, take a few deep breaths, close your eyes, and release whatever tension you are carrying. As you exhale, become centered & say to yourself silently: "I love you. All is Well." You will then notice how much calmer you feel.

   5. Praise yourself:
 Criticism breaks down the inner spirit, and praise builds it up. When you berate yourself, you belittle the Power that created you. Praise yourself often!
 
   6. Loving yourself means supporting yourself: Reach out to friends and allow them to help you. You really are being strong when you ask for help when you need it. Caring friends and Support groups are there to help you.

  7. Love your negatives:
No matter what negative situation you are in, it's there for a reason. Think on it as a lesson to improve your being.  Trust that it will resolve beautifully for your own benefit

   8. Take care of your body:
 Drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, and smoking are just some of the substances we take into our bodies to numb out the pain, and deal with life better. But, the sad fact is that it doesn't help make it better. Take care of yourself, exercise regularly so your body can help support you in whatever comes your way.

   9. Mirror work:
In order to find out the cause of an issue that keeps us from loving ourselves. Try looking in the mirror the first thing in the morning and say, "I love you. What can I do for you today? How can I make you happy?" Listen to your inner voice, and start following through with what you hear. Then, if something unpleasant happens to you during the day, go to the mirror and say: "I love you anyway."
Affirmations performed in front of a mirror are advantageous because you learn the truth of your existence. When you do an affirmation and you immediately hear a negative response such as, "Who are you kidding? It can't be true. You don't deserve that", that is a gift you can use. You cannot make the changes you want until you are willing to see what is holding you back. The negative response you have just discovered is like a gift in that it becomes the key to freedom. Turn that negative response into a positive affirmation such as: "I now deserve all good. I allow good experiences to fill my life." Repeat the new affirmation until it does become a new part of your life.

   10. "Finally, love yourself now!
Don't wait until you get it right. Dissatisfaction with yourself is a habit pattern. If you can be satisfied with yourself now, if you can love and approve of yourself now, then when good comes into your life, you will be able to enjoy it. Once you learn to love yourself, you can begin to love and accept other people. We can't change other people, so leave them alone."
 
Writing and Working on your affirmations today:

• Start with "I," and be short, clear, and positive. Use present tense.
• Write it in a way that you can feel it right for you (using words that are meaningful for you or in a way that you can believe it)
• For example is you want to use “I Love myself” but you feel that you can’t believe yet, you can try: “I am willing to love myself everyday a little bit more”
  

• I truly love myself.
  
• I can always find a relaxing confident place inside myself.
• I feel good about who I am and what I’m doing with my life now.
• I accept, appreciate, and approve of myself exactly as I am.
• I feel great about loving and accepting myself as I am.
  
• I can accept and love all those little parts of myself that need extra
• attention.
• I am grateful for this divine opportunity to get to know myself deeply and
• experience an empowering loving relationship with myself.
• I am 100% committed to having an amazing, loving, and empowering relationship with myself!
  

 

The crown chakra is the seventh chakra and it is at the top of the "chakra ladder" which starts from the root chakra that grounds us on the Earth and progresses upward to the Sahasrara which connects us with the universe and the Divine source of creation.
Sahasrara is located at the crown of the head. The gift of this chakra is experiencing unity and the selfless realization that everything is connected at a fundamental level.
The energy of this chakra allows us to experience mystical oneness with everyone and everything in nature.

There is no intellectual knowing at the level of seventh chakra, but there is serenity, joy, and deep peace about life.
You have a sense of knowing that there is a deeper meaning of life and that there is an order that underlies all of existence.

The "way of the crown chakra" is the way of going beyond the limits of your own ego. It is the way of transcending the ego and knowing that all of creation is interconnected at a fundamental level.

The crown or the seventh chakra is located at the top of the head.
Just as the Root or First Chakra connects us to the Mother Earth, the Crown Chakra is our connection to the Universe.

In fact, the Seventh Chakra disperses the Universal energy or life force into the six other chakras located below it.

The Crown Chakra is our connection with Divinity; it is the portal through which the life energy enters our body. Without this energy, human beings cannot function properly and tend to feel disconnected with self and others.

By balancing and strengthening the Seventh Chakra, we can connect with the Higher Power to receive its love which can then be shared with those around us.

Crown Chakra is related with the powerful colour Violet:

Violet offers and inner sense of wholeness. With wholeness comes a sense of ending, completion of a process, and a promise of something new, illumination, rebirth.
Violet connects with sadness of letting go and also with joy of transformation. There is peace and tranquility in the newfound knowledge of profound change.
Violet color is cleansing and purifying. It is the color of magic, ritual, cleansing, purifying, connecting, mystery, and mysticism.
It is a color that allows us to glimpse other realities, beyond our physical and material reality of this earthly existence. It is pure cosmic energy.
Violet is a color of reconciliation. Of bringing together polarities - male and female, day and night, hot and cold, heaven and earth, right brain and left brain.
In this state of balance, you feel the connection with other beings, with heaven, with earth, with all of Universe. There is no separation, no duality.

Fifth Chakra or Third Chakra or
Ajna is a Sanskrit word means 'command' or 'summon.'
Literally, means 'the monitoring centre,' is considering as the eye of intuition and intellect.
It is the seat of wisdom and insight. This chakra can centre your mind, and it has been full of peace and stability.
The gift of this chakra is seeing - both inner and outer worlds.
The energy of this chakra allows us to experience clear thought as well as gifts of spiritual contemplation and self-reflection.
Through the gift of seeing we can internalize the outer world and with symbolic language we can externalize the inner world.
The energy of Ajna allows us to access our inner guidance that comes from the depths of our being. It allows us to cut through illusion and to access deeper truths - to see beyond the mind, beyond the words.
The "way of the third eye" is seeing everything as it is from a point of "witness" or "observer", or from simply being mindful - moment by moment.
It means examining self-limiting ideas and developing wisdom that comes from a perspective that transcends the duality of good or bad, black or white. It means seeing and helping others to see the deeper meanings of the situations in their lives.
Sixth chakra is holistic in nature. When this chakra is fully activated, both hemispheres of the brain function in synchrony. The right hemisphere's creativity and synthetic thinking is integrated and balanced with left hemisphere's logical and analytical thinking.
It is here where many parts of our brain work together. Like portals of perception. They include our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and they provide us the ability to see, hear, smell, and taste. We use these organs, separately or in combination, to learn about our surroundings.

When they are linked up with our intuition, our other sense of “all knowing,” we can discern for ourselves what is helpful, healthy, or harmful.

Ajna governs right and wrong for our self. This is where you not only see what is going on, but you also know what it means. This is where your sense of justice and your ethics originate.
This internal government is coloured by indigo, a combination of violet and blue. These colours represent the integration of the chakras above and below this sixth one.

In essence, ajna is a combination of our spiritual centre as it communicates with the sensations flowing within our body.

Third Eye Chakra Affirmations:

• I am in touch with my inner guidance.
• I listen to my deepest wisdom.
• I seek to understand and to learn from my life experiences.
• I am wise, intuitive, and connected with my inner guide.
• I nurture my spirit.
• I listen and I trust my own wisdom.
• I trust my intuition.
• I forgive the past and learn what was there for me to learn.
• I forgive myself.
• I love and accept myself.
• I know that all is well in my world.
• I am connected with the wisdom of the universe.
• I am open to inspiration and bliss.
• My life moves effortlessly.
• I am at peace.
• I am the source of my truth and my love.

Somebody asked me this question during the week. What is yoga for me?
It got me thinking…

For me Yoga is my way to cope with life!

Yoga helped me (and still does!) every single day, to find myself, to put together all the broken parts of myself and learn how to react to life, to people, to circumstances...
It's like pouring gold (like the Japanese broken vases!) in all the wounds of my heart and soul and keep myself together adding value and beauty to my life.
It doesn’t matter how I am, how I feel that day, as soon as I am sitting in the mat to start the practice, everything become better, clearer.
Some days take more time than others, but even in the worse days of my life, yoga always makes me feel better. And by the time I finish my class I am sure that I can handle everything that life throw at me!
Thanks to yoga I survived the worst storms of my life.
It gave me roots when mine were severed and I didn’t know where to stand.
It gave me strength, resilience, faith and hope.
It gave me light in the darkest nights of my life.
And it always ready to catch me when I fall and to give me support when I can get it from anybody or anywhere else.
 
Yoga allows me to access and work in all the areas of myself, the ones that I like and the ones I don’t like too! Bit by bit, layer by layer, I can connect deeper and deeper to my core believes (the ones responsible for make me act as I am) and I can confront them to see if they are still supporting me or are working against my peace, grow and expansion.  Yoga gives me the opportunity to review it and change it, if I need it, in a safe and protected environment.
Yoga help me, every single day, to be more kind and patient with myself and others (not easy sometimes!!) And reminds me that there is no need to push, to force, to compete, to be perfect, because there is no place to arrive. Our life happens as we live, in the process of living, not in the destination or the end (really hard for me to get this too!!)
But every day, thanks to yoga, grasping this idea is a little bit easier 😊
I know I can count in yoga always, through my whole life, no matter where and when.  Always.
And that is what is yoga for me 😊