Tuesday, February 25, 2014

'Love your selfie'

Yesterday's Today show had a segment on "Love your selfie." Each of the show's hosts talked about things they hadn't liked about themselves and briefly described their journey to either "deal with it or get over it," as Matt Lauer put it. The point of this segment was to invite each of us who viewed the show to better accept and love ourselves.

Do each of us have things about ourselves that we'd rather not have? Of course. Perhaps we're not happy about our weight or our shape or our height (or lack of it). Or we wish we were prettier or smarter or had better teeth or whatever else. As Lauer said, if you want to do something to change that, do so. If not, get over it and accept it. That may sound harsh. But he makes a good point—and the other show hosts did as well. Each one talked about true beauty as being inside—"what's behind the eyes," as Savannah Guthrie put it.

What's really beautiful is to see people who accept themselves, who love themselves—and who as a result, love others and enjoy life, meeting it passionately and with generous and open hearts.

When I ask people to list what they like about themselves, I get a deer-in-the-headlights look and few people start writing! However, when I ask them to write down what they don't like, hands start moving immediately; and the list gets built quickly. Why do we do that? We are so hard on ourselves.

What are two things you can do today to "love your selfie"? Ready to start? Or if you have started, are you ready to up the ante just a bit? Try it today. I guarantee you'll feel better. You get more joy from being kind to yourself and loving yourself than ever you do by beating up on yourself.

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