Talk Back with Ellen Wood

The Incredible Response to My Last Blog Nourished My Soul

How blessed I am!

The outpouring of beautiful, loving replies to my last blog didn’t just warm my heart – they blasted a big old hole in it and I scooped you all inside. I love you back a thousand times.

Every single email, and comment below my blog, gave me tremendous support and encouragement; a few of you also shared the agonies you’ve gone through during extremely challenging times and some dispensed advice like, “Take time to smell the roses, Ellen.” (Wow! I needed that one.)

But not one person told me I was saying too much and I should keep some things private.

Imagine that.

I guess sometimes I’m my own worst critic. In that blog I said what I had to say but a part of me was urging me to hold back – afraid of criticism. The response from you, dear friends, proves that authors, speakers and the like do not have to appear to be invulnerable to the anguishes of life.

I thank you deeply, dear friends, for your love and your blessings.

And so, what is today’s anti-aging tip?

Well, since we’re on the subject, how about the most important technique for growing younger?

Love one another. Love yourself.

Here I am preaching to the choir. But this is a reminder we all need because love is something we crave – and it’s as vital to our bodies on a daily basis as eating and sleeping.  Science supports this fact!

Start at home if you live with others. Tell them you love them. Give big hugs. And smile. A lot.

You don’t have anyone to love? Not even a pet?

Then go to the children’s ward at the nearest hospital, or the hospice or the pound. All that love you have inside is too good to be put on hold until someone comes along. Go out and spread it around.

And if you’re alone and housebound?

Well, you still have the most important person who needs your love. We often forget the second part of “Love Thy Neighbor.”

How do you love yourself, especially if you’re feeling just the opposite?

Like everything else, it’s about creating a new habit. Sometimes when we do something stupid or embarrassing (as we all do at one time or another) we chastise ourselves and play the scene over and over and over in our minds. We keep telling ourselves how disgraceful we are and then we get into a rut of continuing to be hard on ourselves.

It’s time to break that habit.

I told you earlier that sometimes I’m my own worst critic. Well, that’s stopping as of right now. I’m going to practice changing to a new habit of loving myself just as I am, right along with the rest of you.

Write on an index card, “ILYJAYA YAM.” and put it by the mirror in your bathroom. (I don’t have to use a card because I created a T-shirt with the mirror image of ILYJAYA YAM.)

Then every morning look into your eyes in the mirror and say: “I Love You Just As You Are. You Are Magnificent.” Say it twice.

No judgment. Focus on that thought alone.

Oh, it won’t do a lot of good when you first do this. Probably not the second or even third time, either. But don’t give up. Continue saying it every day – even more than once a day.

Eventually it will sink in and your subconscious mind will suck it up.

And then see how young you feel. When love really permeates your brain, a whole cocktail of chemicals is released, including adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin, and your immune system is enhanced. The result is a healthier body and it FEELS GOOD!

If you’re tempted to think you’re not worthy of loving yourself, repeat the divinely inspired words of Marianne Williamson in her book, A Return to Love.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’  Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.  Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.  There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you.  We are meant to shine, as children do.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.  And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Please Click to Comment beneath this blog, and tell me how you feel about this tip – or give me any thoughts or advice or questions you have about love.

Love and Joy!

Ellen

 

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