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Embody Self Love- Not Just an Idea

There’s a difference between the idea of self love and the embodiment of it.

We all know that we “should” love ourselves. That’s the idea of it. The fact is however that most of us spend an awful lot of time negating our self worth with negative self talk, choices that don’t reflect our true essence, and inauthentic boundaries in our relationships that disempower us.

The idea of self love is a good one, but the embodiment of it goes way beyond the idea into the actual lived experience of it. The embodiment of self love requires a deep and loving inquiry into the soul self versus the social self.

The soul self is the unique essence of our being that runs deep and true. The social self is the egoic self that develops as we grow in order to “survive” in the world, win love and approval, and achieve a perception of success. In other words, we learn how to behave in order to be loved.

Unfortunately our learned behavior often has us sacrificing the authentic essence of the soul self to accommodate the social self. The soul self gets buried alive under the constructs of the social self to the point that the soul self is barely identifiable.

Development of the social self may help us to attain certain results in the material world, however it can also be a persistent abuse and betrayal of the core of our being. And it is this self betraying and abusive behavior versus the deep and true soul essence of self, that is really who and what we dislike, even hate,

Devoting oneself to that deep and true soul self is a first step back to finding the love that it rightly deserves. Because it’s been so obscured by the egoic social self, the way new civilizations stack themselves one on top of the other, it’s actually necessary to excavate your soul truth, to embrace it, and to truly embody it, so that you can actually love it!

Leela Francis is a speaker, facilitator and Embody Power Expert. She’s the founder and CEO of Vividly Woman, helping women to tap into their embodied power to become thriving, healthy and fulfilled leaders, personally and professionally.

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Self Love Sweet Love


The number one issue facing women today is chronic and destructive lack of self love. It’s a sad reality that living with as much opportunity, wealth, rights and freedoms as we as women do in this part of the world, that we still inflict punishment on ourselves in the form of self hate, self judgment and lack of self worth that is almost as destructive as what we see in misogynist societies.

What the world needs now, is for women to be in love sweet love (with ourselves). It’s one of the only things that there’s just too little of!

The paradigm shift slowly heading our way, where the values and blessings of the divine feminine are heralded and celebrated, cannot come about until a critical mass of women can honestly say, I love ME, and mean it. This isn’t something we can feign. That won’t cut it. And I know that all things have their time, but I have to confess I’m a little impatient for this one. Particularly because I now know just how juicy it is. That isn’t to say that I don’t have my ups and downs, moments and hours when I resort to my issues of shame and self blame. I still know those places intimately, however I am way more the witness, versus the victim to those corrosive tendencies.

So here are a few tips I’ve learned and discovered over my years as a tumultuously juicy woman with moods and emotions that sometime seem like they could fuel a jet plane.

Tip #1 Give yourself sensual gifts. Choose things that won’t induce guilt, like rich desserts or expensive ticket items. Instead, here are some ideas: Take a warm bubble bath, massage yourself with fragrant lotion, cuddle up naked with a soft throw. Please add to the list at the Vividly Woman Facebook group! We want more juicy ideas for being sensually loving to ourselves.

Tip #2 Spend time in nature seeing yourself in the mirror.Nature is so beautiful and she is a reflection of you. Spend lots of time in her loving embrace and remember to ground in your oneness.

Tip# 3 Move your body. Dance every day for at least 15 minutes. You can do it on your own, or join a global circle of sisters who are dancing together virtually. Dance Your Power Daily Dance-A-Thon

Tip# 4 Identify and prioritize meaning in your life. Move out of victim and into the power of self love by choosing to do things that have genuine meaning, and choosing to find and stay conscious of meaning in all the things you do.

Tip#5 Express love to yourself. Make it a frequent daily habit to tell yourself, “Leela, (your name) I love you”. Say it a loud, sing it in the shower, write it in the sand, write it on a card and mail it to yourself, send an email to yourself.

Self love isn’t a science, it’s a creative practice that requires devotion. Aren’t YOU worth devoting yourself to?

Leela Francis is the founder of Vividly Woman. An embodiment Expert, facilitator and coach, she inspires the values of the divine feminine in work and in play.

www.VividlyWoman.com

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