I had to smile when I saw the prompt for episode one. Though the world can be very draining and we get caught in the web of trying to survive, self-love is something I never forget to do. I show myself love at the slightest opportunity. I always believe that I deserve it because I know how hard I work, things I've been through, how I feel and just about how everything is going on for me.

Gifts is one of my love languages and whoever knows me certainly agrees that gifting is a way I show love to people a lot including myself. I basically believe I show myself love everyday. In my daily self- affirmations and positive self-talk. Yes, that's showing myself love. It doesn't have to be huge or expensive. I love myself, that's why I affirm good things about myself daily.

During the buzz of festivities last December and early this year, I gifted myself a book, an amazing novel. As seen in the picture, the title of the novel is Church Girl. Just before I returned to school about a week ago, I got myself a little writing pad. I love journaling and though I couldn't find a bigger size of the kind of notebook I love to use as my journal, I still got what I found. I also remembered that when I got to school this year, I gave myself a treat. I refused to cook for about two days and ate out at a nice restaurant. That's self-love! The last time I did something thoughtful for myself was yesterday. I got a hair bonnet with my name branded on it.

The simplest things such as getting my nails done, having a new hair do, forgiving myself for a mistake are all acts of self-love for me. There shouldn't be a limit to what we can do for ourselves. Self-love for me is equally something we should do regularly, randomly, not on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas, valentine etc. Denying people a second chance because they didn't treat you well the first time is an act of self-love. Setting healthy boundaries to enable us to keep our peace, happiness and sanity is regarded as self-love in my opinion.

People get things twisted sometimes and really, the word self-love has been limited to material things only and I don't think it should be so. Whatever you do because you have your best interest at heart is considered as self-love. Whether you decide to be in solitude for a week in order to think clearly, say no to a suitor who you don't think you're compatible with, air out your grievances with someone who hurt you, say no to helping someone because it's not convenient for you, the list goes on and on and that's self-love!

So make a decision today if you didn't do that already, to be kind to yourself a little more, a bit more often. It's okay to know that there's no crime in doing so. Choose yourself, spoil yourself, you can even make a list of things you want to try out this year, things that can make you very happy. For me it's travelling, I wrote down some restaurants that I want to try out their meals, new dishes I want to taste this year, new outfits I want to add to my wardrobe, new hairstyles - ones I've never tried before. There are lots of things, do them for yourself. I am doing it so you can do it too and if you're wondering why, it's because I'm top tier! I deserve it. You do too!

^{All images used in this post are mine}

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