The holiday season is a time for love, for compassion.
It is a time when we do for others, when we do not put ourselves first.
The entire theme of this box may seem a little contradictory to that statement because each day I've asked you to take time for yourself.
Today we're focusing on compassion for ourselves in addition to others.
We're talking about self-love.
Depending on your life experience, the concept of self-love can dredge up a lot of emotions. For our life to come together and truly feel harmony, we must love ourselves completely. We accept who we are, who we were, and who we want to become. That maybe very difficult and it may not happen today. That is absolutely okay. Today I ask that you sit with your inner voice like you did on day 11 (truth) and be kind to yourself.
A little anecdote/recommendation...
If you follow me on instagram, you already know I'm pretty open about my struggles with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, and depression. I come from a long line of women who are very judgmental with sky high expectations. As a result, one of my biggest struggles is my inner dialogue. To say I'm my harshest critic is a bit of an under statement, but very true.
Being kinder to myself is something I work on daily.
In 2022, I read and went through a workbook called the Gift of Self-Love by Mary Jelkovsky. That book made huge impacts on my life. While I wouldn't say it healed me, it definitely healed parts of me. It really helped me see how hard I was on myself and how that needed to change. If you struggle with your inner dialogue, body image issues, and/or find it hard to love yourself, I highly recommend Mary's workbook.
While I was working through that book, I wanted to enhance my Sunday ritual with something that was rooted in self-love. The first place I went was my bookshelf and pulled out a few herbalism resources and got to work. That's when and where today's gift was born.
Journal Prompts
- How do you talk to yourself? Would you talk to a friend the way you talk to yourself? Why?
- How can you show yourself compassion?
- How do you give and receive love?
Today's gifts is my self-love bath tea. This is in the shop throughout the year, and will likely always be in the bath product line up. You can find self-love in a bath oil, bath tea, soaking salts, and shower melts. The bath tea that you have today, uses the same oil and salt combo as the other products, but with the added luxury of rose petals. The essential oil blend uses lavender, geranium, and rose absolute. You can pour the bath tea straight into the bath, or you can use the sachet provided to contain the rose petals. Whatever suits your fancy. :)
Rose for confidence, compassion, happiness, harmony, and love.
Geranium for beginnings, confidence, courage, healing, self-work, and wisdom.
Lavender for attraction, emotional balance, beauty, emotions, intuition, rebirth and renewal, peaceful relationships.