Dey Dos Magazine January March 2014 | Page 16

Do you deeply and intimately Love yourself? But how do we Love ourselves? ! After two years of experience as a Life Coach and a hard process of getting to Love myself, I have identified 3 important steps:! 1.  Accept yourself completely. You have your talents and your limitations, like everybody else, it is a matter of choice where you will direct your energy, and what you give attention to, grows. ! Photo by Annemiek Leuvenink at weHOST 2013, Portugal.! This is a YES or NO question. ! I don´t believe that any kind of love can be measured in 70% yes, or 50-50, or sometimes yes – sometimes no. ! So I invite you to take another look at this question, gather all the courage and vulnerability that you can find within yourself, and give a straight answer! ! If the answer is YES, I congratulate you with all my heart! You are on the right track! If the answer is NO, please allow me to open an honest conversation about Love and to share from my experience. ! I believe in Love as the ultimate power and energy. ! love This incredible force is the source of all creation, including yours, mine and everyone else’s on this planet. ! I choose to believe that Love is the answer to everything. And that Love can appear in many forms, that´s why it can be the answer for everything: there is the Love for family, friends or for a significant other, there is the Love for animals, nature, contribution, for a hobby and for what we do for a living, there is the Love for a stranger who just smiled to us, the Love for the hard moments as they are filled with lessons, the Love for a special object that we use as a totem, the Love for each moment we breathe and the Love for all Humanity, and ultimately there is the Love for ourselves. And I believe that is here where should start. ! You are made of lights and shadows, and you can serve the world from both places, by having the courage to shine and the vulnerability to ask for help when you are in your dark moments. ! 2.  Forgive yourself. There is no point in living your life with blame, anger or frustration. ! One thing you can do is to write a letter, in which you break down in small details everything that you can’t forgive yourself for: all the lies, all the mistakes, all the blame, and after you poor it all out, make a ritual of burning the letter and letting go of everything. Trust that the universe will take care of it and that new and clean space is created inside of you. ! 3.  Practice gratitude. Everything that you have been through, all your high and low moments, make you the person that you are today. And everything was the best that could have happened. So look for the lesson in all your pain and take pride in all your achievements. And then make gratitude the alpha and omega of your every day. ! Journaling about what you are grateful for or using gratitude as a mediation mantra, are ways to practice this art. ! 4.  Own your personal power. Learn to say YES and learn to say NO, to yourself and to others. You have your boundaries, which deserve to be respected and expressed. People´s feelings and opinions don´t depend on you, you are responsible for your own feelings and beliefs. ! Amalia Ghiban is a free spirited woman driven by the power of Love. She was born and raised in Romania, and she´s based in Portugal for the last 6 years. Her economic studies opened the path for a business-financial career. After 5 years of corporate jobs like: banker, consultant, project manager or treasury operative, she took one year break to figure out things for herself. And it was this year the time where she discovered her spiritual path and her purpose in life. Since 2012 she is freelancing as a life coach, serving others to live the lives that they truly deserve, more fulfilling, more confident and more authentic. 16 | Dey Dos Magazine by Amalia Ghiban