“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.”
Oscar Wilde
Hello from San Francisco.
I have been thinking about the importance of having a great relationship with one’s self and how it matters in creating and living a romantic life on your own terms.
Some people may have grown up in an wonderful environment where everyone around you was supportive and encouraging; most people, I bet, must have been let down more than once by people around them. Do you believe what they told you? If you do, it’s OK to throw away that belief. Realize that you don’t need to live that story told by other people… or even a story that you keep trying to convince yourself to follow. Your life is your art, and you are responsible for writing and living your own story.
If you want to make that story romantic, I believe you need to have a great relationship with yourself.
In fact, if you want to have great relationships with others, the same thing applies. World Domination Summit, which I attended last week, reminded me of that. The summit was extraordinary and I’m still in a dreamy state. I don’t plan to wake up, but instead, I plan to bring that dream into reality. It was that awesome.
One common theme I noticed in every keynote presentation of World Domination Summit was exactly this topic: your relationship with yourself. The reason why I noticed this theme was probably because I wanted to see it in every talk, and I may have been biased like that, but that’s not a problem, I hope.
(By the way, if you are curious about World Domination Summit and what it was like, there are a number of great write-ups out there. Here is a good place to start.)
But why do you need to have a great relationship with yourself? What does it mean to have a great relationship with yourself anyway? Let me explore these questions.
What does it mean to have a great relationship with yourself? What comes to my mind when I think of having a great relationship with yourself is the following.
- Accepting who you are
- Respecting yourself
- Trusting yourself
- Being curious about your potentials and possibilities
- Taking care of yourself physically as well as mentally
- Being comfortable with being who you are
These things could be summed up as: loving yourself.
Why do you need to have a great relationship with yourself? I kind of answered this question above; I think having a great relationship with yourself allows you to have great relationships with others.
I believe my life is my art and I believe your life is your art, too. You are making an art everyday by connecting with people, because what you share with them becomes stories, colours, sounds, textures and visions in your art… and their art. If you can have great relationships with others, your art and their art are more likely to be epic. I believe that’s how you make your life romantic, too. So, there you go.
When you have a great relationship with yourself – when you know how to love yourself, I believe you will know how to love others as well, because what you do when you love others is what you do to yourself when you love yourself. Also, it seems to me that being authentic, which is crucial in having great relationships with others, requires having a great relationship with yourself.
If you don’t know how to love yourself, I believe you’ll have a hard time loving other people. Are you afraid of loving or being loved? If you are, start taking care of yourself. That could change the way you relate to others.
What’s your relationship with yourself like? Do you listen to your inner voice? Are you honest with yourself? Do you take care of yourself? Do you believe in yourself no matter what? Are you aware of your potentials?
Let’s change the way you relate to yourself from today. You can start loving yourself (and if you already do, loving yourself more) from this moment.
Tell me and share with us your thoughts on having a great relationship with yourself! I’m not a guru or anything, but I’m here to start a conversation so we can learn from each other. It’s your turn!