In this month where love is celebrated, I wanted to focus on self love, self appreciation, and self care…mostly because I kinda suck at it sometimes! 😅 Maybe you can relate?

 

There is nobody who is harder on myself or gets more disappointed in myself, than me.

 

And it has been brought to my attention that the way I care for Valentine is not very sustainable if I also don't make time to care for myself…I realized this is true because I have really felt pushed to my limits at times.

 

So instead of being hard on myself for being hard on myself (!), I am trying to embrace this month's mantra--to remember all the times I have trusted myself and things turned out right, to talk to myself like how I would talk to a good friend, to let go of this idea of perfection or being the best, and to chill out a little and simply show myself a little more love! I invite you to do the same. May we all move through the year with the energy and confidence of this fabulous child. :)

For this sketchbook page I began with writing down positive examples in my life as the result of listening to myself. Mistakes always seem to stick so this is a reminder of all the good that's come from it. I added pink watercolor for self love. Then I used a white crayon to write the mantra. I like how you can't see it until you add paint to it--I felt like it represented how our intuition and gut feelings are invisible but so powerful. I added a layer of white paint as a symbol of forgiving ourselves, a clean slate when we need it, and finished it with pressed flowers to symbolize finding the beauty within and growing and blossoming into who we are. (I also love the idea of getting ourselves flowers instead of waiting for someone else to!)