Learning To Love Yourself Is the Greatest Love Of All

I was so saddened by the news last month that Miss Whitney Houston had died at 48 years old. Whatever her personal struggles in life - drugs, love, alcohol no one can deny the God given talent Whitney possessed, that inspired millions around the world.

At about 13 years old I fell in love with her music. Even the stuff from the 80's! Amazing voice, amazing talent, amazing messages in her music that we could all listen to again and again! I'm pretty sure my wedding night will be mainly a collection of Whitney's greatest hits!

Most of Whitney's songs are about the biggest subject in the world... LOVE! Maybe it was the love she sang so passionately about, as well as that phenomenal voice, that made us all love her music. Kacey is 2 and she's been gripped by all the Whitney songs being played as tribute at the moment. Who doesn't think about... who doesn't want... who doesn't need love?

We've all felt love at some point in our lives.

The love you feel for your parents. When your little and you've had a bad day at school because your best friend fell out with you and un-invited you from their birthday party - that hug and understanding from your mommy is like no other! Falling over and your daddy picking you up, wiping your tears from your eyes and telling off the floor for hitting your head! How safe does a daddy's chest feel? I like to think that old saying... 'you can't choose your parents' is rubbish - I'm sure I chose mine.

The love you feel when you hold your new born baby in your arms is incredible. You would do anything to protect the bundle of joy in your arms, truly nothing else matters. You find that you feel in love with everything, every things perfect, the worlds a beautiful place!

The love you feel the first time you fall in love! Those butterflies, your heart skipping beats when you see them, thinking about them ALL THE TIME, feeling shy when your around them, waiting for AGES for them to call you. Wondering if they love you back - Whitney understood when she released, 'How Will I Know?'

In 1986, the year I was born, Whitney released, 'The Greatest Love Of All' If your not familiar with the words:

'I decided long ago, never to walk in any ones shadow, if I fail, if I succeed, they cant take away my dignity... Because the greatest love of all is easy to achieve, learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.'

I'm not sure if Whitney ever got to that point in her life, maybe that's why she left to start the next one. But I truly believe that without loving yourself, without being happy with yourself everything on the outside can shake you and break you. You may look to outside factors to make you feel better about yourself, to take away your insecurities. No matter what happens in life you need to be able to count on yourself. The person you love can break your heart, the person you trust can stab you in the back and the person you thought would protect you can throw you to the lions. If you have a deep understanding of yourself, a happiness , a love then no matter what others do to you or what life throws at you, you can always rely on yourself to eventually be ok - dare I say even happy!

I heard something interesting the other day, according to Charles J. Orlando author of 'The Problem With Women Is... Men' Whenever we leave a situation or relationship 'badly' or 'in a mess' we will take the issues that brought us to that messy situation in the first place into our next relationship. Basically until you deal with your own issues - no matter how many times you run away from them - they will replay out in your life until you deal with them. How many times have you found yourself in the same bad situation? Maybe there's something life's trying to teach you?

So how do you love yourself? I guess you have to know yourself first, the good, the bad and the ugly. Don't beat yourself up if you fall short of your expectations, or the expectations others have placed on your life. Ask yourself what do you want out of your life? I told someone to meditate the other day because they were stressed out, in fact Ive told loads of people to do this! And I try to do it myself. I don't mean go into a field chanting in bare feet, enter a tent and sit cross legged on the floor for 6 hours saying 'hmmmmmmmmm' before hugging a tree. By meditation I mean, go sit by yourself for 5 minutes, close your eyes and clear your mind. Focus on feeling good. You never know you might find out something important about yourself or a situation that you were too busy to notice before. How do you find out if you're in love with another person? - Spend time with them - so spend some time with yourself. (No I'm not being dirty Emma) If there's something you don't like about yourself then change it - no one else can.

So those of you that know me know I've never had anything really tragic happen to me in life that hasn't worked itself out. I've never lost anyone close to me. Jake's heart stopped when he was 7 weeks old, that's probably the worst thing that's ever happened to me - but luckily I never lost my baby. There are things that have happened to me that are tragic, that I wouldn't like to share with everyone reading my blog

Love is strong not weak, so be strong, know yourself, and love yourself. Your amazing. Honestly there's loads of areas in my life I'm unhappy with and I know it's because I have issues I need to work on. I have loads planned this year, lots of personal goals. I'm going to work on the only person I can improve upon - ME!

Until next time,
Lot's of Love,
Naomi Claire
xxx

One Life, Live It! -At What Cost?

Ok so it's been a while, prob in more ways than one for some of you. But it's back! I know how much you've all missed my blog. Andy Jones especially!

A few different recent events have brought the following phrase to mind,
'No man is an island.'

Whenever something happens to someone (good or bad) the affect it has doesn't just effect the person it's happened to and the ripple affect doesn't stop at the people close to them either. We've all 'felt' for people we've never even met before when we hear of something tragic, moving or happy happening to them. And it's a nice trait of human nature to have compassion for others.

I was having a girly catch up last night and we were all sharing about whats happening in our lives at the moment. All of us had something we wanted to 'better.' Better house, better car, better job, better body, better mind set... You get the picture and I'm sure you have a long list yourself.

My message in life is always to live life to the full and go for everything you want 100%!
But what about when it effects others in a bad way? How far should you go to get everything you want?

To get to the top of your game in business you're most likely going to annoy people along the way. Normally though the problem lies with the people getting annoyed. More than likely, jealously that they aren't making their dreams a reality or worse still - they don't have any dreams. I wonder how many of those people will want to know you again when your successful and probably drop you again if you lost it all? I think as long as your not purposely screwing people over in business you should go full throttle to reach your goals.

What about when your not happy in a relationship and you decide it's time to move on? What if your partner doesn't want to move on or change to keep you? Do you move on to please yourself or stay put and hope its gets better, or settle for less than what you really want? I don't have a right answer and everyone's different. My only opinion is that if you don't love someone you should leave them. How cruel to stay with someone you don't really love?

If your family is 'religious' or has strong thoughts about the way you should conduct your life, but deep down in your heart you dont agree, what should you do? Live a lie so as not to offend your family or be true to yourself at the risk of being ostrasised - black sheep syndrome. As a mother I hate to think my children might do something I strongly disagree with, but I can't control them and I'd like to think that whatever path they take in life I wouldn't let it effect me - it certainly wouldn't affect my love for them.

As a mother is it right to stay home and if needs be claim benefits to support your family as long as your at home for your little ones? Or do you go out and work at the risk of your children not 'getting the correct start in life' ? What effect would it have on your partner if you stayed at home or went to work? I guess everyone has an opinion, normally the people that have never been in the situation. In the words of the great philosopher Chimpmunk, 'opinions aren't facts, take them in and let them go.'

How many people should we stop and think about the affects our actions might have on them before we make a decision?

Should people allow themselves to be effected by others?

It's hard to treat people the way we want to be treated if it means we don't get what we really want.

Every time someone wins, does someone else have to loose?

Go for what you want, reach your dreams, become a better person and grow. But be careful, no one wants to spend their life wondering what karma has in store.

'Do what you want and believe in because those who matter support you and those who dont support, you dont matter.'
Amelia Grant

As always I love your feedback so don't hold back!

Until next time
Lots of love
Naomi Claire
Xxx