Today's quotation:

You owe no one as much as you owe yourself.  You owe yourself the action that opens for you the doors of goodness, the variety, and the excitement of effort and success, of battle and victory.  Making payment on this debt to yourself is the exact opposite of selfishness.  You can best pay your debt to society, that has made you what you are, by being just yourself with all your might and as a matter of course. . . .  You fulfill the promise that lies latent within you by keeping your promises to yourself.

David Harold Fink

Today's Meditation:

Why is it that we see being self-centered as such a negative thing?  Don't we all need to be a bit selfish on a regular basis if we're going to be of any use to the other people in our lives?  How much good can we do if we're always tired and worn out and unrested?  If we're not at the top of our game, just how much good can we be doing?  Personally, I want to give my best when I give, and if I don't take care of myself first, I'm not going to be able to give much, am I?

We all know of the saying that we're not able to love others until we learn to love ourselves.

David Fink says "you owe yourself" many things.  And once you pay yourself what you owe, he goes on to say, your contribution to the world will be much greater, for you'll be dealing with the world with abundance, not with lacking.  Taking care of yourself truly is the first action, the base of taking care of the world in which you live.

I wish that we all could be satisfied with who we are, and that we could take care of ourselves well, not neglecting ourselves from some misguided notion that taking care of ourselves is too selfish to do any good to anyone else.  If each person could learn to take care of him or herself, think of how little crime we'd see, how little jealousy or envy or rage or frustration or back stabbing.  So much of what goes on in this world would simply go away if people would just learn this simple lesson:  take care of yourself and then you can contribute in a very positive way to the lives of others. 

For further thought:

You cannot fail at being yourself.  A cat doesn't try to be a tiger, and you shouldn't try to be something you aren't.  You are a process, not a product.  Your job is to discover what you are and to create that creature.  You still won't be perfect, but success isn't about perfection-- it is about authenticity.  You are a success if you are being your real, authentic self.

Bernie Siegel

more thoughts and ideas on self-love

All contents © Living Life Fully, all rights reserved.

We have some inspiring and motivational books that may interest you.  Our main way of supporting this site is through the sale of books, either physical copies or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the online reader).  All of the money that we earn through them comes back to the site in one way or another.  Just click on the picture to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and non-fiction!