I am definitely writing this with a song in my head (as I do with everything in life) so I had to start playing "Ain't Nobody" by Faith Evans. If you're not familiar go to your preferred streaming platform and check it out. I also went down a rabbit hole and discovered a plethora of love songs along this same theme however most of these are talking about the love from someone else and that is not why we are here today. Nope, today is all about self love and I do not mean of the sexual type. Nope, today we are talking loving yourself!
One of my favorite things to come out in the last two years is Snoop Dogg getting his much deserved star on the Walk of Fame in which he gave a speech and now famously said "I wanna thank me!" When I heard that I cheered! We do not thank ourselves enough for everything that we do and accomplish. So quick to thank others when the first person we should be thanking is our own damn selves!
So how does this tie into reading you're wondering? Let me explain. Recently my friend Amber sent be a book recommendation for 30 Things I Love About Myself by Radhika Sanghani. She knew it was totally my vibe and she was right. I thought it might be a regular romance where our heroine finds love in a man. Nope! This book was about a year journey of falling in love with yourself and the challenges and triumphs that happen in life along the way. Man, I felt this book so hard!
Some context. I myself have never been in love of the romantic variety. I have loved and have been loved but never within the context of a romantic relationship. I have been in this dating game for years. Last year, 2021, I gave up on online dating. I had simply had enough and decided to turn the focus on myself: what I enjoyed doing, what I wanted for myself and who I wanted to surround myself with. Outside of some minor entanglements, I have been really focused on falling in love but with myself. Identifying the aspects about myself that I love and making myself into the person that I want to love.
That said above, this book resonated! I do not want to dive too deeply into the book as I want y'all to read it for yourself and go into Nina's story unbiased. I will say that my favorite aspects of this book was the list that Nina challenged herself to write about the things she loved about herself and how she embraced the journey. I am still on my journey and think it is something that is life long as I learn and grow. That said, I want to challenge everyone to create a list of what you love about yourself. Here, I'll share a few mine:
My adventurous and spontaneous spirit
My smile and laugh
My ability to open up even after I have been hurt
My forgiving spirit (but I still set boundaries)
My ability to find the right people to embrace not just as friends but as family
So what about you? What do you love about yourself? Did you read the book? Tell me what you thought!
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