And the winner is. . .

Wow! A whole bunch of new followers and 19 comments to my baby blog. This was some party.

I loved your comments on self worth. You are awesome. I plan on quoting you every chance I get. You were born to make a difference.

Please come back to this blog every chance you get and tell all your friends. It's all about learning to love yourself and guaranteed to give you a boost. By commenting you strengthen others as well as yourself. I post here every Tuesday.

The winner of the I Know Who I Am workbook is landSsmom. The winner of The Book of Positive Messages is Alex. I will be contacting you both for mailing addresses. I hope you enjoy your gifts. Winners were selected by Random.org. I wish I had prizes for everyone.

Thanks for participating in the Easter Hop. Do me a favor. Make a list of 5 things you love about yourself. Only one can be about your appearance. Dig a little deeper. If this is challenging for you, give it some time. Post your list somewhere that you can see it often, and smile everytime you see it.

Isn't it time we started loving ourselves?

Linda Garner

p.s.

I had an awesome interview with the fabulous Linda Adams yesterday. Click here to read the interview. Click to enter her site and then click on her blog.

Hugs.

Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza

Learning to love yourself is not always easy. To share that love, I joined this Easter Hop. Why? A chance for you to win cool stuff. A chance for me to get new followers. A chance for spreading the word that it’s okay to love yourself.

Every blog on this hop is giving away something fun. You might find books, you might find gift certificates, you might find fun, book-related swag. Each and every blog has something to offer you, and all you have to do is click on the links below, follow that blog's easy instructions, and poof! You are entered. Then you move right along to the next site, and you tell your friends how much fun you're having.

On this blog, I’m giving away a copy of The Book of Positive Messages and a copy of the I Know Who I Am Workbook. These are great books for creating self-confidence and learning to appreciate your unique gifts. Good for teenagers too. Tell all your friends, so they can hop on.

To win one of my prizes, just become a follower of this blog and leave a comment about self-worth. It’s that easy. If you’re already a follower, just say so in your comment. The winner will be selected by Random.org. If you win, I will need a mailing address.

Since I am passionate about preventing sexual abuse, I’m including an eggstra chance to win. To get the eggstra chance, just copy the e-poster on this page and share it with someone. Think email, twitter, facebook, whatever.



Click here to hop to the next blog.



The Easter Hop ends at 11:59 p.m. on April 25.

Linda Garner

Someone's Watching

Is it Selfish to Love Yourself? I know that’s what some of you think. We’ve been conditioned to think that we should take care of everyone else first, and if there’s any time or energy left, then we can take care of ourselves.

In truth, this is backwards thinking, because if we don’t take care of ourselves, we may become depleted and have nothing left to share. Remember how on airplanes they tell you to get your oxygen mask in place first? That’s because if you pass out from lack of oxygen you won’t be able to save your child. Makes sense doesn’t it.

I worry about the example we are setting when we run ourselves ragged and don’t take time for ourselves. Remember, if you have a daughter, a niece, a granddaughter…they are all watching. What are we modeling? Are we teaching them to care for themselves or are we teaching them that they do not matter?

If you are not motivated to take good care of yourself, think about the girls that are watching you. What kind of life do you want them to have? If you want those girls to grow up confident and serene, then model that behavior. If you want them to be strong and beautiful then model that. If you want them to feel awesome and think well of themselves then mind your own language and behavior.

Children have never been good at following directions, but they have never failed to follow our examples. What do you say when you talk to yourself? Be careful, because someone you love is watching.

Linda Garner

13 mattresses, 8 chairs, 11 drawers, two toilets...

Today is Spring Clean Up day in my neighborhood. People have been carting out their old stuff and piling it up on the curb. Today the City will send in crews to mop it up. As I was out riding my bike I noticed the variety. Though I didn’t count, I would say mattresses took first place with somewhere between 11 and 15. Chairs were probably next with eight to ten. There were many drawers, probably more than chairs, really. I also saw two toilets at one house and two sinks at another.

I couldn’t help wondering why these items were discarded. Once they were valued and purchased for a price. Today they have been replaced. Did they serve the user well? Were they helpful at one time, or were they just taking up space.

Discarding has always been difficult for me, but we live in a disposable society and almost everything has a limit to its useful life. What of my life? How useful am I? Am I disposable? Am I helpful or do I just take up space?

Thinking in those terms is a little sobering. What is the value of a life? How much do you value your own life? Your neighbor’s life? Your child’s life?

If the value we place on life has to do with popularity, beauty, strength, or intelligence, then most of us will come up short at one time or another. Is a kind person of more value than a mean one? Is a tidy person of more value than a messy one? Is a young person of more value than an old one?

Though we may strive for excellence, our value is more than our achievements,our skills,our talents,or our age. Our value is more than our character traits. Though we may be trying to improve ourselves in a variety of ways, our worth cannot be measured by our growth. When we try to measure our worth by a worldly yardstick, we will often feel less than.

Growing, improving, developing are satisfying and can enhance our self-esteem, but not our worth. Our worth is eternal. Our value is endless. It was created before we were born. We cannot do anything to erase our worth or to multiply it.

Finding peace with ourselves involves understanding who we are and perhaps more importantly whose we are. This is the source of our worth. When we understand that we were created on purpose and that we are perfect just the way we are, then we can begin to love ourselves. When we love ourselves, we can do anything.

That is our destiny.

Linda Garner

Making Friends with Your Body

2 out of 5 women would trade 5 years of their life to be thin.

More women are suffering from anorexia or bulimia than are fighting breast cancer.

Most American girls begin to diet when they are just 8 years old.

Why are we our own worst enemies? How did our views get so distorted? We have a serious body image crisis on our hands. (from the operation beautiful video.)

Do you have a love/hate relationship with your body? Many women do. Do you cringe when you look in the mirror? Do you feel that beauty is reserved for the thin or the young or the well dressed? What a damaging message that is. Your body shows up for you 24/7 and does amazing work for you. How about a little appreciation?

Have you ever considered what a miraculous machine your body is?

The average human brain has 100 billion nerve cells. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel at a speed of 170 mph. It takes the interaction of 72 muscles to produce human speech. The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet. The average human heart will beat 3,000 million times and pump 48 million gallons of blood in its lifetime. Human blood travels 60,000 miles per day on its journey through the body. Each square inch of human skin consists of 20 feet of blood vessels. During a 24 hour period, the average human will breathe 23,040 times.

Those are startling facts, but let’s bring it home. Consider the value of the tasks your body does for you each day. Consider your feet which carry you anywhere you care to go. Consider your fingers and hands which serve you in so many ways. Think of your eyes and ears. Notice the beauty and joy they bring into your life. Imagine functioning without sight, without hearing. Your body is beautiful beyond belief. How about a little appreciation?

I like to take a few moments each day to thank my body for its service. Mentally and emotionally I send love and appreciation to every cell in my body. We’ve been friends for a long time, and I’d like to keep it that way. I also love doing kind things for my body like getting 8 hours of sleep, eating healthy foods, and finding time for exercise. I know my body is grateful when I take good care of it, but nothing beats a kind word.

Have you made friends with your body? Today’s a good day to start. Send a little love and appreciation out to your brain, your heart, your blood cells. Speak kindly to your your feet, your legs, your fingers. Send a smile of gratitude to your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your voice.

Enjoy your beautiful body, today. It is your very best friend.

Linda Garner

Is This You?

Is this YOU? Is your calendar out of control? Can you squeeze one more thing into your day planner? Are you addicted to your “to do” list?

Do you ever feel like you are in charge of everything and in control of nothing? Reminds me of the sign in my aunt’s kitchen: The hurrier I go, the behinder I get. If something goes wrong, are you the first lady of solutions? Are you the family fixer? Are you a general authority (an authority on everything in general)?

How’s it working out for you?

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Loving yourself is the key. It is not conceited to love yourself. It is essential. How can we hope to love anyone else if we don’t first love ourselves?

We take care of the things we love. Loving ourselves helps us to take care of ourselves. One problem with being too busy is that we don’t have time to take care of ourselves. If we aren’t careful we can become worn out and depleted. No good can come of it.

Another problem with being too busy is that we don’t have time to feel things. We need to feel things. We need to face our uncomfortable feelings so that we can make positive changes. If we cover up problems by filling up our “to do” list, then we miss the warning signs that things are amiss.

When we are too busy to feel, we don’t have time for feeling good about ourselves. We need to feel valued. We need to feel loved. We need to feel beautiful. We need to feel important. We need to feel that we are good enough. And most important, we need to feel peace.

How are you going to schedule that into your dayplanner?

Feeling good about ourselves doesn't come from what others think or say. It's an inside job. What we believe about ourselves carries the most weight. Others may complement us, but it won’t mean a thing until we believe it.

Believe in yourself. Believe in your worth. Believe that you are beautiful, important, and enough. Find peace.

Today, take time for you. Take time to feel.

Linda Garner

Celebrate!!

What a wonderful day to Celebrate. Today is International Women's Day, the 100th anniversary. I hope you do something fun to celebrate. I hope you are kind and thoughtful to all the beautiful women in your life.

I want to celebrate by sharing some inspiration videos with you. Click on these links. Enjoy.


Evolution of Beauty


Operation Beautiful


The One Flaw In Women

You are beautiful and amazing. Think Beautiful Thoughts. Have a Beautiful Day.

Linda Garner