Christmas is a time when we often give to others. To our families, friends, work colleagues. To carol singers, charities, a toy appeal, the local food bank, a pint of blood or simply some spare change to someone in need. Giving to others – be it time, money or even a smile – brings a sense of warmth and love to everyone involved and it is a beautiful thing to do.
So whilst we are in this season of goodwill to all men… and women… here’s an idea for a Christmas gift to yourself… do for yourself what you do for others.
And trust me, when you give yourself what you need not only will you feel happier in yourself and more loved but life will feel lighter, your inner confidence will grow and you’ll have more to give to others.
Here are 52 inspiring, thought-provoking and uplifting quotes… that’s one a week for 2018… and my gift to you.
1. “Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.” – Parker Palmer
2. “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection” – Buddha
3. “The most powerful relationship you will ever have is the relationship with yourself” – Steve Maraboli
4. “To establish true self-esteem we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives.” – Denis Waitley
5. “Don’t rely on someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can’t love and respect yourself – no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are – completely; the good and the bad – and make changes as YOU see fit – not because you think someone else wants you to be different.” – Stacey Charter
6. “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck
7. “You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.” – Diane Von Furstenberg
8. “It’s not your job to like me…it’s MINE!” – Byron Katie
9. “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” – Lucille Ball
10. “The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours – it is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.” – Bob Moawad
11. “Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
12. “If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” – Fred Rogers
13. “Loving yourself…does not mean being self-absorbed or narcissistic, or disregarding others. Rather it means welcoming yourself as the most honoured guest in your own heart, a guest worthy of respect, a lovable companion.” – Margo Anand
14. “Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.” – Maxwell Maltz
15. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
16. “When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.” – Jean Shinoda Bolen
17. “A healthy self-love means we have no compulsion to justify to ourselves or others why we take vacations, why we sleep late, why we buy new shoes, why we spoil ourselves from time to time. We feel comfortable doing things which add quality and beauty to life.” – Andrew Matthews
18. “Our self-respect tracks our choices. Every time we act in harmony with our authentic self and our heart, we earn our respect. It is that simple. Every choice matters.” – Dan Coppersmith
19. “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Washington Thurman
20. “Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” – Malcolm S. Forbes
21. “I’ve finally stopped running away from myself. Who else is there better to be?” – Goldie Hawn
22. “To accept ourselves as we are means to value our imperfections as much as our perfections.” – Sandra Bierig
23. “You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” – Louise L. Hay
24. “To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” – Oscar Wilde
25. “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James
26. “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
27. “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” – Carl Gustav Jung
28. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
29. “The better you feel about yourself, the less you feel the need to show off.” – Robert Hand
30. “I think everybody’s weird. We should all celebrate our individuality and not be embarrassed or ashamed of it.” – Johnny Depp
31. “There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it is enough to be taken care of by myself.” – Brian Andreas
32. “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” – Benjamin Spock
33. “Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.” – Lao-Tzu
34. “People who want the most approval get the least and the people who need approval the least get the most.” – Wayne Dyer
35. “When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits – anything that kept me small. My judgement called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving.” – Kim McMillen
36. “I found in my research that the biggest reason people aren’t more self-compassionate is that they are afraid they’ll become self-indulgent. They believe self-criticism is what keeps them in line. Most people have gotten it wrong because our culture says being hard on yourself is the way to be.” – Kristen Neff
37. “You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.” – Yogi Bhajan
38. “It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.” – W.C. Fields
39. “Your problem is you’re… too busy holding onto your unworthiness.” – Ram Dass
40. “The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.” – Rita Mae Brown
41. “She lacks confidence, she craves admiration insatiably. She lives on the reflections of herself in the eyes of others. She does not dare to be herself.” – Anais Nin
42. “It’s surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognising that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you’re not comfortable within yourself, you can’t be comfortable with others.” – Sidney J. Harris
43. “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin
44. “It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else’s eyes.” – Sally Field
45. “Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world making the most of one’s best.” – Harry Emerson Fosdick
46. “When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.” – Jean Shinoda Bolen
47. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
48. “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
49. “If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t even giving to yourself.” – Barbara De Angelis
50. “To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don’t wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now.” – Alan Cohen
51. “Find the love you seek, by first finding the love within yourself. Learn to rest in that place within you that is your true home.” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
52. “Whatever you are doing, love yourself for doing it. Whatever you are feeling, love yourself for feeling it.” – Thaddeus Golas
Fall in Love With Yourself Workshop
And if you’d like to explore the most important relationship you will ever have in your life, the relationship with yourself, some more.
Join me in February for my FALL IN LOVE WITH YOURSELF WORKSHOP and discover why it is so important to love yourself and how, by doing this, everything else in your life will flourish.
