Adventure: Self Love

When was the last time you took a bath?

Yes, in a bath tub.  With perhaps a candle burning?  Or a slow, sweet melody by Alexi Murdoch streaming from an iPod? And maybe your sweet someone delivering you a cup of tea (sub red wine, cold crisp beer or beverage of choice) and going to walk the dog and leaving you peace and quiet?

Still going through the memory files?

Stop what you are doing and go do it now.  Or take your agenda book out or computer calendar and mark in there a good hour labeled HOT BATH:  Self Love.

So, I sat in the bath tub last week wondering why it had been most likely over, dare I say, two years since I had immersed myself in bubbles and hot water.  I lay in said tub+bubbles and took a moment to submerge all the way underwater.  Do note, it’s almost eerie in the bathtub as your ears fill with water and you can hear your own breathe, your stomach gurgle and then…there is nothing.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.  Gurgle gurgle.  Breathe.  Breathe.  Peace…. And I realized in that submersion, I had not taken time for me in a very long time – in between the work agenda, conference calls, birthday parties, a recent cross country move, the boyfriend, friends, family phone calls, sweat once a day, dog has to poop, don’t forget to eat lunch, scooter driving permit…you know, the whole life thing we all have going on…

And yes, there it is, the beautiful revelation here is that when you take time for yourself, you actually take time for everyone in your life, everything you are up to and thus, you take time for the whole World.

Side story:  I remember sitting in my living room years ago and my grandparents had come from Indiana to visit me in sunny Santa Monica, California.  My Grandpa, a man of few words in a group setting, sat on the couch and looked at me in conversation and he said, “Jacki, you cannot love anyone else until you learn to love yourself.  You just can’t”. 

I seriously paused time and took a mental snapshot of him dropping this wisdom bomb and furiously took out my mental yellow legal pad and wrote it down…wrote it down probably three times in a row in my head…

You cannot love anyone else until you learn to love yourself.  You just can’t.

You cannot love anyone else until you learn to love yourself.  You just can’t.

You cannot love anyone else until you learn to love yourself.  You just can’t.

I say get in the bathtub.  Right now.  Soak in hot water and bubbles.  Relax.  Love yourself.  Love your body.  Love your life.  Take time for you.

And I know when you step out, you will see.  Oh, you will see. 

Self Love.  Bubbles.  Beautiful.

Self Love.  Bubbles.  Beautiful.

Self Love. Bubbles.  Beautiful.