It's time to start loving yourself more

What if you simply devoted the remainder of this year to loving yourself more?

This question has been sitting with me for quite some time and for some reason I have hesitated and made every excuse book to avoid it. I know I need to be able to look at myself with more love and less guilt and hate at times and I’m sure you do too. The world is a competitive place and we can be so damn hard on ourselves.

So today marks the official day of me diving in and figuring out ways to love myself more. For me, this currently is about giving myself a pass to start thinking more selfishly about what I can do to make myself happy first before I try to make everyone else around me happy. Over time I've realized I'm a people pleaser and there isn't necessarily anything nothing wrong with that. -I'm in a line of work where servicing people so it is the name of the game and I enjoy it. But I also need to remember that it's ok to say "no" to things, to take a day or two off each week like a normal human being and to do something that will make me happier in life such as spending more time with my huz and friends or giving myself more time to focus on my health. I'll be honest, I've had skinnier and healthier looking days in my lifetime and I would love to feel that way again. Feeling healthy is one of the best feelings because you know you are taking care of yourself and in turn, you appreciate and love yourself!!

It's funny how I started my own business with this idea that I would be able to have more balance in my life and somehow I have failed at the whole adding balance and zen thing. While becoming a small business owner has been extremely rewarding, it's also the most challenging thing I have ever done. I can very easily get sucked into working 24/7, especially when I spend M-Th doing office work and then usually book myself F-Sun with shoots or weddings. Just ask my ever so patient and loving husband. I'm an extremely passionate person who is very passionate about my work. My work is personal and is my baby and because I wear multiple hats as a small business owner I have a hard turning it off because there is always something to do. This feeling of always needing to do something productive to catch up or get ahead then turns into guilt because not only am I missing out on spending time with my husband and friends, I am not taking care of myself and therefore not really loving myself the way I really should.

And so it begins -- my journey towards loving and appreciating myself more this year. I encourage you to think about the ways you could love yourself more this year too. As the amazing, iconic, and my all-time favorite actress, Lucille Ball once said,