Do you love yourself? Are you comfortable in your own skin? Do you own all of you?

I-am

I found this card when I was cleaning up my studio on Saturday. This was created 25 years ago and was the affirmation that I gave to myself back in an Insight 11 The Opening Heart Seminar in 1985. This was the year that I seriously embarked on starting on the journey of self discovery that brings me to where I am today.

I thought this was a good starting point for my Self Love story. Those words: Accepting and loving me have been the ones that are most challenging to truly believe. It took me a long while to learn that love first comes from within and is so empowering when we stop looking outside of ourselves, then we can see only love.

“Love is what comes from within, loves know no boundaries, love opens the doors to freedom and joy. Love conquers our fears. Love opens ones soul to a higher place where sharing love openly allows us to shine. Love ask nothing in return. Love allows me to be at peace.”  – Suzie Cheel

The path to self love is a journey, like any journey there are the highs and lows, there many paths, many questions, many answers and I have been down many byways to get to the point I am at now where I am me and I am okay, as Virginia Satir says in her poem Self Esteem. This book of the poem was also the inspiration for my book Emergings: A meditation on the emotions of change which is primarily about loving oneself, accepting oneself, having high self esteem and understanding that life is a wonderful ongoing  journey of change and self discovery.

One of the things that I have come to realize is that to get to being able to really say I love me and I am okay requires that I trust ME, my feelings,my intuition, my higher self, those niggling gut feelings that I kick myself later for when I haven’t followed.
When I  totally love myself I am truly free. Do I always love myself? No I still beat up Suzie, what is different today is that I am conscious of when I am doing it and why. I also have tools and resources that empower me. I also know what juices me and makes my heart sing. I am in alignment with what I call my empowerment needs.

Another challenge I have had to deal with is looking outside myself for answers and solutions.

  • Someone else will provide a solution.
  • Someone else will have the answer
  • Someone else will do it better than I can
  • And the BIG one: I am not good enough!

What I know now is that while I have spent too much time looking outside of myself for both inspiration and guidance, I have played the comparison game. This has delayed the process of totally accepting that I am comfortable in my own skin and accepting that when I love who I am I can then live my purpose and empower others and make a real difference in the world today.

Ways to self-love:self-love

One of the ways to self love is to move out of fear. Fear stops us big time. I know I have allowed fear to hold me back:

  • The fear of failure
  • The fear of success
  • The  fear of I am not enough

One of the tools I have used is to keep a love journal and I give this verse to my clients to put in the front of their love journal

Where you are at now is okay
Be with what is
Not what might be
Acknowledge the courage and the strength
that took you to this point.
When the whirlwind churns in your mind
Take out your pen and write in me
I’ll help you through the fear, the pain and anguish.
Your thoughts, your dreams
Your hopes and desires
Will be safe with me
And when you find
The light that shines from within
When love and joy and happiness emerge


I’ll be a comfort for reflection
You’ll find the courage that enabled you
to take that first step
The strength you need to take the next risk.
© Suzie Cheel

Do you love yourself? Can you say I love me and I am okay?

with love

Be inspired, be empowered, be the change and make a difference TODAY!

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“Enjoyed reading my story of self-love? Well, there’s more! You can also read the rest of the stories written by online personal development bloggers in a Self Love Stories Report. Evelyn Lim started the ball rolling by sharing her story in the post Self Love Story: Lessons from the Heart.  She had written it in response to an intuitive call to create greater Self Love Awareness.  The report, compiled with the help of Lance Ekum, will be available as a free download soon!”

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