Aideen Schweppe is a Lymphatic Drainage Therapist based in Clontarf, Dublin. She is passionate about helping women with lymphoedema after cancer treatment to manage their condition as best as possible.
Aideen will be joining us on a regular basis going forward with posts on lymphoedema as well as other positive wellness content.
Aideen is a firm believer in the power of repeating positive affirmations and starts her posts with us today with one of her favourites.
Love must come from within us. It’s human nature to go looking for love, acceptance, approval from some external source – friends, work colleagues, our boss, our partners, our parents, our siblings – but if we don’t love and accept ourselves there will always be that niggling doubt deep within us, we’ll never truly believe that we are loved and accepted, that we are worthy of love and acceptance.
There’s huge freedom that comes from acceptance. Imagine if you could accept your imperfections, your appearance, your body, your personality. Imagine how much energy would be freed up for other things if you no longer worried about the things you can’t control. If there are things you’d like to change, behaviours for example, that’s great, go for it, get the support you need to bring those changes about. But do it for you, do it from a place of acceptance, of growth, of personal development.
I suggest repeating often – I love, forgive and accept myself.
Love yourself first, as you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Love yourself fully, as this will give you the strength to weather all of life’s up and downs.
Love yourself deeply and you’ll be far less likely to feel hurt by other people’s behaviour.
And remember, it’s ok to not be ok sometimes.
Forgive yourself for being human, for having emotions, for feeling overwhelmed sometimes.
Forgive yourself for being imperfect. What is perfect anyway? It means something different to everyone, and it’s probably ever-changing.
Know that you can only do your best at any given time, you may look back on something in your past and feel unhappy about how you behaved, but you were doing the best with what you had at that time. Learn from it, grow from it, and forgive yourself.
Accept yourself the way you are. Accept yourself and allow yourself to grow and develop at your own pace.
I believe if we can love, forgive and accept ourselves, there will be a lot more love, forgiveness and acceptance of those around us, and we show others that it’s ok for them to love, forgive and accept themselves too.
Aideen at Beautiful Life is an experienced Manual Lymph Drainage Therapist. It was after a close family member was treated for cancer that Aideen qualified as an MLD Therapist in the Dr. Vodder method. For more on Aideen, visit her website, www.mld.ie.
