Love–it’s such a huge part of life. We all want to feel experience it and feel it. We spend so much time and energy focused on falling in love and loving others and easily forget that one of the most important keys to inner happiness is to fall in love with ourselves. We want our kids to be confident, to feel great in their bodies, to know that they are amazing little beings capable of doing whatever they want- we want them to love themselves as much as we love them. But are we doing a good enough job teaching them self-love?
Their little eyes are always watching us and even when we think they’re not listening you’ve probably been surprised a time or two at what they’ve overheard you say. As parents our first responsibility is to be a fantastic role model for our kids because they will do as we do, not as we say! So think about this–how much do you love yourself? Can you look in the mirror and embrace every part of yourself and say, “I am totally awesome, and I love myself.” If you can’t, then the best way to turn that around is to start believing it and get your kids involved. Get all of you in front of the mirror every morning and look at yourself right in the eyes and tell yourself “I love you!!” then have your kids do the same.
We also have to do as much as we can to take care of ourselves. Nurture your love for different things; let your kids see you doing things that you love. Help your kids find things that they really love to do and make it a priority that they get to nurture that, whatever it may be, often! Self-love is as much about nurturing our passions as it is taking care of our bodies.
Taking care of our bodies is a huge way to love ourselves. If you look in the mirror and aren’t happy with what you see your kids will notice that. If you moan and groan every time you get on the scale, toss it out! Make an effort to lead a healthy life. We only get one body; it’s our responsibility to treat it right. It should be your most prized possession. Lets teach our kids that we don’t eat healthy food and exercise to lose weight or be skinny–we do these things because we love ourselves enough to make sure we are healthy.
Love yourself more than you every thought possible and your kids will follow your example by loving themselves. A great thing to do if you have a hard time with this is to change your mindset. So much of how we feel about ourselves has followed us from childhood. If that’s the case with you get a picture of yourself as a child, look at that picture every day and tell that little person that they are perfect and that you love them. We create our own stories, if you don’t like your story just create a new one and eventually your body will believe your mind.
Jacqueline Banks is a certified Holistic Health Counselor and online fitness coach. She works with women in all stages of motherhood, from mothers struggling with conception to those trying to get their grove back after pregnancy to ensure the best health and nutrition for both mom and baby.
