“It’s not what you say to everybody else that determines your life – it’s what you whisper to yourself every day that has the greatest power.”
- Robert T. Kiyosaki
I asked my daughter, Sienna, to do this Self-Love exercise with me when she was six years old. I was curious about what she would do.
I got a mirror out and asked, "Sisi, can you look into this mirror and tell yourself that you love yourself five times in a row?"
She picked up the mirror and said, "I love you, myself, Sisi” five times in a row with zero hesitation.
And then she even kissed the mirror three times.
She looked at me and said, "Now you try, mama!"
I couldn't do it. It was weird, awkward and very uncomfortable. I started to laugh in the mirror.
"How did you do it, Sisi?"
"Because I just felt love."
"So, what is love to you?"
"It’s life. That’s all, mama,” she was ready to move onto a different subject.
Love is life.
"If you don’t love yourself, others will treat you meanly. If you love yourself, people treat you nicely because they say, 'Sisi loves herself so I love her, too.'"
Sienna’s wisdom reflects what my mom used to say to me, “Treat your skin like the most expensive silk in the world.”
Nothing exemplifies this more than washing your face at night. With more than 3,000 receptors in your fingertips, touching your face is emotionally intimate and one of the most sensorial acts of self-love. When you wash your face, you are taking time to look at yourself in the mirror and paying attention to yourself at the most basic, physical level. It grounds you in your skin and body with the calming rhythmic energy. It also symbolizes going to bed with a clean slate and waking up feeling good in your skin.
It wasn’t until I viewed washing my face as an enjoyable ritual, rather than a one-more-thing-I-must-do chore, that I began to understand its profoundness.
It was a small window for restoration; I took the time to breathe in the aroma, massage away the day’s tension, soften the skin, and sweep away dirt and toxins.
xx
Angela, Founder of Savor Beauty
