How do I begin making myself a priority?

As I was putting together content for my upcoming ‘Priorities’ workshop, looking over the lists of ways to make ourselves a priority, I realized that there was something missing. It was the most important piece.

If we truly loved and accepted ourselves, we wouldn’t struggle making ourselves a priority.

We can make changes, set boundaries, take better care of ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We can do all the tasks of making ourselves a priority and still miss the foundational piece.

“The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself”.

Maya Angelou

We must become our priority from a place of love and acceptance of ourselves.

Not because we are frustrated, tired, burned out, or at the end of our rope. Those are all good motivators and can drive us to make changes, and at times they can make us feel guilty.

I often tried to make changes from the place of frustration. I would get upset, yell, make threats, and say things were going to change. And I meant it. Well, for a split second that is. Then the guilt and shame crept in for me acting like I did. I couldn’t stand feeling the guilt and shame, so I tried to make it up to them, being nice.

I believe those changes, to be lasting, must come because we are learning to love ourselves enough to remember our value. We then start thinking about ourselves and treating ourselves with the same love and compassion that we treat the people in our lives that we love the most.

The most challenging part of this journey starts with self-love, self-acceptance, and self-compassion.

As we learn to love, accept, and be compassionate to ourselves, making ourselves our priority becomes a natural way of life.

When we change the world changes.