A couple of years ago – I think it was in 2018 – I was attending an intense shadow work group retreat in Italy.
A few days into the workshop, one of the participants told me: “You already love yourself, now it’s time to love another.” Or something along those lines.
Basically, she felt from my actions and words that I have a good amount of self-love and that I’m ready to be in a romantic relationship.
Well, I can tell you that many things happened after that workshop that led me to invest in loving myself even more.
Because as a survivor of emotional and verbal abuse, I still had more work to do around self-love.
And the truth is that there are layers to loving yourself and you can always love yourself on a deeper level.
And of course, self-love is linked to self-respect and that’s crucial for attracting a healthy romantic relationship.
That’s why I like to keep reminding you of self-love and self-care in my Wellness Wednesday blog posts. Even though I might sound repetitive
The thing is, without prioritizing yourself, no one can truly love or prioritize you.
Since I’m not fasting, I decided to go out for breakfast yesterday. I chose a relatively new spot in my old neighborhood.
It was a very relaxing way to start the day, especially that the cafe has views of the JLT park. You feel like you’re having breakfast in a park and in a way, you are.
If you’re living in Dubai, I suggest you check out Splendour Fields in JLT. The weather was perfect when I went and there was a cool breeze. I sat outside and had a hearty breakfast. It felt so good to be there.
The interesting thing is that the cafe is literally in my old hood – where I lived for exactly eight years.
Another fun fact is that on April 1, I completed exactly 13 years of living in Dubai alone and single. I’m not sharing this to say that I’m not happy or miserable about it. I actually see it as an achievement. Mainly because I’ve been doing a lot of healing and personal growth work in these years. So I feel like I’m a different person today than when I first moved to the city in April of 2010.
Another tip worth mentioning is to surround yourself with people who help you soften and step out of survival mode.
I wrote a blog post about this and you can read it here.
So if you’re still not prioritizing yourself in each moment of your day, please try to get into that habit.
I’m not talking about mothers here. I just mean single women like me. The main relationship that you have is the one that you have with yourself and the rest is simply a reflection of that.
Once you feel like you’re at a good place of loving and prioritizing yourself and your needs, you can start connecting with others who make you feel safe and loved.
I’ll talk about this in next week’s Wellness Wednesday blog post and how I just started applying this in my own life.
I’ll share stories of how I’m now allowing safe people in and learning to trust again.
The past three years were all about cutting off fake friends and setting healthy boundaries.
I think that I spent a very long time in my protective shell and I’m now ready to step outside. It might be scary at first but it feels right.
Stay tuned to hear about how I’m starting to connect with others and let safe people in.
Talk to you tomorrow in a new Thursday Thoughts blog post!
Leela
Love yourself More: Self-love first
Self-love first
Love yourself More: Self-love first
Self-love first
