Notice: This is filed under Crunchy Granola Thoughts. You don't have to read it if you don't want to. You've been warned. This week is full of granola - so much that Nature Valley might be jealous. Lame joke alert. For the record Nature Valley makes the best granola bars ever. They don't sell them in Tonga. I may have dreamt about them the other day.
I want to talk about self-love. Because I truly don't think it's possible to survive [and thrive in the] Peace Corps unless you have a healthy dose of it. Seriously. You spend a lot of time alone with yourself and inevitably scrutinize your every move and decision. You sometimes over-think, sometimes don't think enough and question your actions. Am I good enough? Smart enough? Funny enough? Tough enough? It would be an awful long two years if you didn't like who you were hanging out with. I can tell you that I have loads left to learn in the "self love" journey. I've realized this especially over the last week. There are different ways to demonstrate self love. I think a language of love that I'm pretty fluent in is saying "yes!" [to most things, anyway]. So here are a few of the things that I have said yes to that remind me exactly how rad I am.
Yes to bringing my french press from America so I can drink real coffee sometimes (when it arrives in packages from America).
Yes to eating an entire 1kg jar of yogurt because it tastes good.
Yes to yelling "high five self" when I am alone in my house and have just finished picking up every dead cockroach, molokau corpse and smooshed lizard body on the floor and I didn't yell or get scared.
Yes to walking/running an hour a day and not getting attacked by dogs while doing it.
Yes to setting up meetings with the Governor's Office so I can get the ball rolling on some ideas that I have.
Yes to finally practicing yoga on a regular basis (and loving it!).
Yes to having an all-Tongan conversation with an old man named Sikaleti (Interesting fact - Tongan translation: Cigarette) who taught me about the benefits of lemongrass.
Yes to wearing elastic skirts everyday.
Yes to already having read 20 books while serving in the Peace Corps.
Yes to teaching my Tongan neighbor what an omelette is and having dinner and Tongan language lessons together.
Yes to writing snail mail and it actually arriving in the USA or wherever I've sent it to.
Yes to rockin' dorky glasses when no one in Tonga wears them and when half the time they are sliding off my nose because of the humidity.
Yes to having a file on my desktop entitled "Smile" because sometimes it's just hard to. Double-click.
Yes to using a scrub brush on my feet every night because I live in flip-flops and don't want my bed to be dirty.
Yes to new things. Because they are scary and fun.
Yes to being more honest and open about my feelings.
Yes to sticking up for myself even when it's scary.
How do you show yourself love? What are you saying YES to?
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