Most of us are highly aware of the fact that we need to love ourself and top up our cup first, before we can help others.
We can only keep pouring from a full cup. Helping and caring for other people's needs more than our own on an ongoing basis can easily lead to:
resentment building up
anger outbursts that seemingly come out of no where
exhaustion
a sense of being used
powerlessness
feeling like a victim
hopelessness, all the way to depression.
But loving yourself is easier said than done.
They recommend to look in the mirror and say “I love you” over and over, until you start believing it.
Positive affirmations can be super powerful, but if every ounce of your being screams “what a load of nonsense!!” within, you won’t be able to feel it and you will simply be wasting your time.
Or, like in most cases, you won't even go there (because it feels uncomfortable) and keep pouring from an empty cup, until you're burnt out and won't even remember who you are anymore.
This is called cognitive dissonance and is a result of a conflict between your conscious mind (telling you you “should” love yourself) and your subconscious mind (represented by the body, reminding you of all the reasons why you shouldn’t). Usually your subconscious/body wins.
Therefore, telling yourself "I love you" in the mirror won’t cut it.
If you haven’t processed them at the time, your body stores beliefs and memories from the past in form of trapped emotions, so you don’t forget them before you’ve acknowledged them and learnt their lesson. They create tension, emotional and mental imbalances which, if not released, can lead to pain, inflammation, dis-ease and changes in body shapes which are all reflected in a map in miniature in your feet.
If your body is holding onto a heap of memories you feel shameful or guilty of, you won’t be able to use positive affirmations effectively. Instead, telling yourself you love yourself will feel like a small or big fat lie.
The good news is that trapped emotions can be released via specialised clearing and the feet with The Footprint Connection Reflexology. You can free yourself of triggers, emotional baggage and conditioning - in short; anything that holds you back from fully loving yourself - with ease.
Remember, you can only pour from a full cup. If you’d like to free yourself of your baggage, so you can make the biggest positive impact in the world that you’re capable of, learn more about The Footprint Connection Reflexology here
Together we rise.
Image credit: Photographer Imani Bahati via Unsplash