sivasakti.net - Caring For Yourself. Part 1

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C A R I N G F O R Y O U R S E L F

It is important and rewarding to have another person's love and attention, but at least equally important is to gain that caring and respect for yourself. We are encouraged to put our own well being in second place in order to consider others.

However, building up your own self-esteem will empower your life and enable you to become less dependent on another person for acknowledging your value.

This power will sustain you in time of loneliness, but equally important it will add new aspects to any relationship you already have.

The start is simple: a lifestyle that indicates concern for yourself: healthy diet, exercise, rest, and relaxation.

The extra energy that comes from all these actions will help you manage the daily life and the inherent stresses so that those tensions become power for positive actions rather than a negative force that blocks and withholds your energy.

Having the enthusiasm and confidence required for facing the daily issues, as well as a new and demanding relationship requires that you feel good about yourself. In most cases, this feeling good about yourself refers to take care of your real, deep needs and to fulfill them.

The process of self-appreciation begins with feeling good, both internally and externally. Your body will then be relaxed, full of energy and vitality, your complexion clear and glowing, your whole person radiating happiness and fulfillment - things that will only attract the others towards you.

Now: feeling good about your body is important as your contentment sense of humor and merriness depends on this. You could not possibly be merry and happy if you were constantly worrying about the way you look.

The concern for your physical body is also important because of its connection with the fact that a healthy body fights disease much better and effectively than a weakened organism.

Health is important, as ill or health is not only a state of the physical condition, but a state of the mind as well. Enthusiasm and self-confidence are much easily scattered when weakened by disease.

Sleep and rest are important issues in the process of gaining self-esteem. Neglecting your sleep, relaxation and rest can only have negative effects upon your building confidence, as your body is unable to replenish its resources.

A person lacking resources is very unlikely to have the mental harmony and inner balance required to face in a dignified manner the every-day challenges, both in the social life and in one's intimate, love life.

DIET AND NUTRITION
The most direct effect on your health, and the most visible one are through the diet.

This is also the aspect that we most often neglect. Nonetheless, we all know (or at least should) that a healthy body starts with a healthy diet.

The ancient saying "we are what we eat" is still valid these days, and will endure as long as there is life, as the molecules in the food we ingest constantly replace the cells in our body.