Well George, this sounds pretty conceded! Why would I ever think that I needed to write an article about loving yourself on a Diabetes website? The more I have reflected on what helped me the most to reverse my Type 2 Diabetes, I have realized that I needed to get a great big healthy dose of love for myself.
Why Love Yourself?
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? I know when I was first diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes I didn’t like what I saw. Honestly, I was seriously going to start a website called “The Old, Fat, Hairy Guy”. I was not sure what the main topic would be with a title like that, but as you can imagine, my view of myself was not very high.
To some degree, I believe in part this is why I became a Type 2 Diabetic to begin with. I didn’t feel good about myself, thus I didn’t take care of myself the way I should have. If I really cared about myself, why would I not have taken better care?
Most Precious
Now, in contrast, think of something that you really love? Your car, your home, your kids, your collection, whatever it might be, how do you feel about it. Do you love it? If yes, they how well do you take care of it? At the same time I was allowing my health to be neglected, my laptop computer was perfect.
When I say perfect, I mean PERFECT! I have a MacBook Pro laptop and I took such good care of it. It is always covered with a cover to keep scratches from getting on the aluminum case, I wipe the keyboard down with an alcohol wipe to keep it clear of any debris, then finally I wipe the screen down to remove any smudges. Anytime I take it anywhere it always goes in my ultra padded computer bag. I LOVE my laptop. So, why didn’t I treat my health as well as I treated my laptop?
Greatest Love
Because I didn’t love myself, as much as I loved my laptop. When I think back about this, I think to myself that I must have been crazy. I loved my laptop, and took care of it, better than I did my health? What what I thinking? That is the key, what was I thinking? Did I have a great love for myself? I would argue NO! Not until I learned to love myself, did I finally start to take care of my health and reverse my Diabetes. I needed to find my greatest love and it needed to ME!
Disclaimer
Now, I am not saying that you need to develop conceit, pride or be a pompous a-hole. I am not suggesting anything like it. To develop a true love of self, you need to be grateful for where you are and think about how good you will feel when you get where you want to go. Love yourself enough to make the changes needed and build that love by feeling gratitude for what you do have. Sit down and write out all of the things that you love about you. Yes, that is correct, write them out. As a matter of fact, share them with us here in the comments below. I want to see what you are grateful for.
Feel gratitude for each of these things. Then start to work on new items that you can be grateful for and love yourself for those things as well. Continue to build love for yourself until your love is overflowing and then you can share that love with others, but more especially watch as your love for yourself helps you to make changes with your Diabetes.
