Honor Yourself
There are several definitions of honor in the Oxford American dictionary, these are the few I think most apply to what I mean when I say honor yourself. Honor: 1. high respect. 2. adherence to what is right. 3. acknowledge. I mostly use this term in the yoga classes that I teach. I think it is equally important on your sticky mats as it is off your sticky mat in our daily lives. Honoring yourself means, listening to your heart/spirit/higher self (whatever you want to call it), doing what is best for you (this does not justify selfishness, but we all have a need for boundaries and a right to say No), resting when you need to rest, modifying anything in your life to better handle whatever your current situation may be and more.
Some examples may help clarify what I mean. In yoga when a pose or variation does not feel good or causes pain, listen to your body, honor it and either change what you are doing or come out and rest. Another example, sometimes the food we eat literally causes physical discomfort or pain. Either because of a sensitivity/allergy, we eat to much, we eat the wrong foods or a combination of the above. Listen to your body, change what you are eating or how much. Acknowledge what your feeling, the messages you are receiving from your brain/body, either I am eating too much or this food doesn’t work for me, and change it! Last example, if what you are doing is out of alignment with your morals, integrity, religious/spiritual beliefs, your intuition or your plate is simply to full, you will likely feel unpleasant and think negatively about the specific situation. Learn from this, change it, honor yourself, live your life in a way that is in alignment with your higher belief system. Set boundaries, step back when life gets to be to much. Tell whomever, I apologize, I over committed myself, I need to resign from this project, I will not be able to help now, maybe next time but for now IT’S NOT WORKING FOR ME!
Why are we making ourselves miserable when we have the power to change it and do different? Lets learn from our insight, our inner wisdom. Lets take better care of ourselves, in doing so we have more to give the world and the people in it. When we honor ourselves and can give from that loving space it is a win win for everyone.
Now there are exceptions and sacrifices we all need and maybe even want to make over a lifetime, but please don’t make a habit of it. Honor your precious self. When you do you will thank yourself for it and feel all the better because you have.
6 Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I guess I never realized how many ways one could interpret the term “honor.” Growing up my parents always told me to respect and honor myself, because until I learn to do so, I would never be able to honor others, but to involve “honoring yourself” with yoga was something I thought was really insightful. It’s always good to know your own limits, so that you do not harm yourself, but when doing yoga, I sometimes forget to stop and listen to my body, and find that I at times will stretch a muscle a little too far. I also enjoyed how you made a point to mention that saying no and setting boundaries to keep yourself happy does not make you selfish, because I think most people do not decipher between these two things. Taking accountability for our own health and happiness in life is important, and unfortunately, I think many people forget to think about themselves and what they really want and need, which leads to more serious issues down the road. Good post, overall! ?
Very insightful… and very very true!
I think the idea of honoring ourselves is a valuable idea. But to accomplish this, we need to consider not only our thoughts, but other’s thoughts as well. For instance, we may think “something that we are doing”, something that we are saying”, “something that we are eating is good”, just because we are used to it and we think it is good, or maybe we are not aware of the side-effects/consequences; and other people around us are! So, it is great if we can see all the miscellaneous stuff around us that cause discomfort, and be able to correct/change them in order to honor ourselves… But it is always beneficial to consult with people around us and ask them what our bad habits are that we do unknowingly… Then we can think about all of them and take everything under consideration, and finally make a comprehensive decision that will not only benefit us, but also the people that we live/work with!
I’ve struggled for years with honoring myself. I tend to put others before myself, in a sense because I don’t value myself as much as the people I love. I’ve been trying to change the way I think about things, so that way I love others just the same, but I’m also valuing my own needs and wants in life.
It is quite a task to honor yourself but a much bigger task is defining what makes you feel the most honor. I have struggled with priding myself on certain things throughout my life in which others may not see as honorable to them, but I take much honor in. This post helps me to understand that not everyone will see honor as the same thing but it matters what honor means to oneself not about what honor means as a collective.
Like many others i too have struggled with finding the balance on honoring myself, i often still struggle with it. but it has been relieving to know that i’m not the only one. Great article!