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Love Yourself Page 2
 As you read these lists, do you see yourself or maybe a woman friend or family member? It’s easy for us to give so much to others that we never get around to giving to ourselves. We’ve been taught since we were little girls that it’s not okay to be selfish, to share, to give. Our natural instincts as mothers makes it easy to forget our own needs. It flows over into our positions as wives and girlfriends. Even in this time after the changes from the Feminist Movement, there is often an insecurity that we could get “thrown out of the cave” and have to fend for ourselves. We say we can take care of ourselves, but we don’t quite trust that we really can. We were never taught to ask for what we want. Many women hold the belief that they don’t deserve. Don’t deserve to be loved, don’t deserve to have good things happen, don’t deserve the “goodies” of life.
Fortunately for most of us, we have many more options than did our mothers and grandmothers. We can set and achieve goals, we can cultivate our own interests, we can set boundaries and be respected for doing so, we can have our own friends and spend time with them. The self-help information available to us encourages us to love ourselves. But how many of us are actively doing those things? How many of us really know how to put ourselves first? It’s important to realize that if we don’t take care of ourselves first, we’re less able to give to others.
If you suffer from low self-esteem, are you reading books, taking classes, getting support from other women to improve your feelings of self-worth? When we’re feeling insecure in any way, we often overcompensate by giving and doing more. continued
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