Tag: personal growth

podcast

Episode 9: A Diet of Self-Love

Impower You

Listen to episode 9 on my Breaker.audio page!

The concept of self-love was brought to my attention by Michelle Minero a therapist in San Francisco, who wrote an amazing book titled ‘The Self Love Diet: The Only Diet That Works’. It’s a fantastic book and I highly recommend it if you suffering from body issues or are healing from depression. You can grab a copy at TheSelfLoveDiet.org. I read the book two years ago and still have it on my Kindle. An action we can take toward healing is stopping negative thoughts. Once we start thinking negatively about ourselves it’s too easy to stay stuck in that loop. It’s vital that we counter attack our judgmental thoughts with loving thoughts and actions.

Please support this podcast for $1/month on Patreon.com/Loviedo.

D.I.Y. Therapy

DIY Therapy: Biological Response of Love and Love of Self

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Love is an emotion, a biological response that encourages species survival. With love, parents care for and protect their children and children care for their elderly parents. A love of self is also a biological response that encourages survival in personal self-care. So let’s strengthen the naturally occurring sense of self-love. with daily actions.

Create a daily routine of self-love. If necessary set three reminders per day. Saturating yourself with love in the early stages of healing or recovery will keep you from going down that unwanted, unhealthy space. Set the calendar on your phone to remind you. If you can’t do that, put sticky notes by your bed, at your desk, in your pockets, on the fridge, wherever you will see those. You can even do this with your friends and be support for each other.

When writing affirmations or love-notes your own voice and preferred words. Below are examples for you to use or build upon.

Morning Affirmation: 

“This morning I choose to love myself unconditionally. Today is a gift that I am ready to receive. I choose to let go of drama and anger. I will live this day in love and compassion. I am deserving of self-love.”

Afternoon Affirmation:

“Despite any negative thoughts so far today, I must remember to love myself unconditionally. I know that I am loved and supported by true friends and family. I also know that I am not here to be perfect, I am here to be myself.”

Evening Affirmation:

“Today I practiced self-love because I know that. I am loved, that I am capable of loving myself, and that I am made of love. I choose to celebrate my successes and to accept my failures. I go to sleep knowing deep in my bones that I am capable of creating my best life and that I can handle whatever comes my way.”

It was many years of practice, failure, and success to become a loving person to my self. It was even more years of stretching to share that love with others. Now that I am fully aware that I can be my own hero, I can hold space for others. I hope this inspires you to continue your journey until you also reach this awareness.

Peace and hugs, Leah

 If you desire extra support to stay on top of your self-care practice, check out my 3 month challenge: Dive Deeper Into Self-Care.

I’m an artist and writer with a focus on art therapy. If you would like to support my heart work, please consider becoming a monthly patron on Patreon.com/Loviedo. For $1 a month*, you can fund programs like my D.I.Y. Therapy: Healing Depression E-course, my monthly “Radical” e-zine and other free creative healing projects, like “Cultivating Radical Self-Love: A Collaboration of Healers, Artists & Writers“.

*You can also receive also receive art in the mail for a higher contribution.

Radical Magazine

FREE: March Issue of Radical: Growing Into Our Strengths

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Personal growth is our theme this month. Inside you can enjoy poetry, art and healing exercises that encourage us to take risks and leaps to discover what we are made of. Contributors in March are Inisa Fajra, Iris Orpi and myself. Download the March issue on my Patreon page.

 

*Call for submissions: If you would like to submit art or writing to a future issue, use the Contact page. The theme for May is Peace. You can submit work between April 18-25.

Read previous issues on the Radical Zine page.

I’m an artist and writer on a mission to bring healing arts into the mainstream. If you would like to support my heart work, please consider becoming a monthly patron on Patreon.com/Loviedo. As a patron, you can fund programs like my D.I.Y. Therapy: Healing Depression E-course, my monthly “Radical” e-zine and other creative healing projects, like “Cultivating Radical Self-Love: A Collaboration of Healers, Artists & Writers“.

Book Reviews

Book Review “Shortcuts to Mindfulness: 100 Ways to Personal and Spiritual Growth” by Catherine Auman LMFT.

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In the book, “Shortcuts to Mindfulness: 100 Ways to Personal and Spiritual Growth” by Catherine Auman, LMFT, I like how the author begins with the harshest truth of individual empowerment, “It’s a painful process; there are no two ways about it.”

From my own experience  with therapy there are no easy fixes when it comes to self-development. It takes patience, work and a desire to practice what we learn. I felt like her 100 shortcuts are very powerful for long-term change. I say this with the wisdom of experience as much of her advice are things I learned when I first decided to commit to change and a few I’m still in the process of learning.

Some of my favorite shortcuts were knowing its okay to not be happy all the time, that meditation is a great tool to take control of our thoughts and that listening to music with positive messages can boost your physical and emotional strength.

While most self-help authors stick to one particular point in our quest for self-love, Catherine highlights simple actions and ideas we can use to create change in ALL aspects of our lives when we choose, without weighing ourselves down by taking on too much work.

I recommend this book for those who are just starting on the path of individual empowerment as well as those who are looking for more guidance.

Find her book at http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-Auman-LMFT-Shortcuts-Mindfulness/dp/B00RWS8TCY

I contacted Catherine and asked her to share her favorite mindfulness practice. Below is her response.

“My favorite mindfulness practice is when I can remember, to remind myself to BE in the present moment. Not the past, not the imaginary future. If the past or the future want attention, I will give it to them, then gently return, as I can, to the perfect now.

This is also one of my shortcuts, because if we could be in the moment, now, there would be no need for any other practice.

Of course, being human, I still struggle with this. But more and more, it seems less like a struggle, and more like a leela, the play of life.” Catherine Auman

 

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Ready to HEAL? Read my D.I.Y. Therapy posts.

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