Treat Yourself ...

"Treat yourself with love and respect, and you will attract people who show you love and respect."

This is 'The Secret' quote for today. I believe those words with all of my heart.

I am in the best place in my life right now. I feel surrounded in good, positive, warm and caring people. I have never felt so serene, so ... good.

I look back on the people that surrounded me throughout my life. My friendships, relationships and how I felt about myself and how it felt others treated me.

As I lived those years, I can see how relationships mirrored what I felt about myself at the time. I have had a rather low self esteem at times, but when push came to shove I fought my way out of believing it was true.

I can remember being a young, quiet child and the thoughts inside my head were, "If only they really knew me ... they would like me." Looking back at the person I was then, I can't believe that even underneath the shy veneer, I believed in myself.

I have had 2 major 'relationships' in my life. In each of them, I believe that I let that person treat me the way I was feeling about myself. If you believe you are unworthy of being treated with respect, it is almost a certainty that you will find someone who will treat you disrespectfully. Your thoughts then become your reality.

I gave each of those relationships my 3 best attempts. I let guilt override common sense and I kept trying to change the outcome. But the reality is that I 'taught' that other person how to treat me. And somewhere deep inside of me, I knew that I deserved better.

I have spent this past year and a half rebuilding myself from the inside. In many ways I feel that I have accomplished more personal goals in this past year than I have done in my lifetime that preceded this. I have fallen in love with my life. I am surrounded with amazing people that I admire and respect ... and the feeling seems to be mutual. It is a very heady feeling to be living a life that feels so natural and like such a perfect 'fit'.

It is a frightening prospect ... but lately my thoughts and dreams have been daring to believe that there could be another man for me somewhere in my future. I truly believe that if I do attract someones attention, they would see the person that I have become. Not the person that I used to be. I believe that I would attract someone who would treat me the way I treat myself.

I am grateful for the quiet belief that I have had in myself all along. If it wasn't for that quiet 'knowing' inside of me, I could have been swept away and lost in a relationship that wasn't healthy for me. My heart goes out to anyone who is caught up in that cycle. You have to have something strong to hold onto, to get out of that situation. You have to believe in yourself. Because when it comes right down to it, only you can save yourself. But first of all, you have to believe you are worth saving ...

Treat yourself with love and respect ...