Hot Pink YOUniversity

Radical S elf-Love:  Part Four of Four Photograph by Christie Gause-Bemis   Imagine being asked out on a date with that one person in your life you are most excited to share your time with.   The anticipation, the thought put into your hair, your make-up, your outfit and your attitude, your personal pep-talk.   Now, imagine that date is with yourself....who more important to primp and prep for? When I turned 29, it was a milestone for me.   One more foot towards 30; but, more importantly, I was now older than my big sister.   She passed away the day after her 29th birthday party after a long battle with brain cancer, and here I was, alive and grateful.   I always wanted a surprise birthday party and remembered the one we had given my sister for her 29th.   I wondered, who, if anyone, would ever give me a surprise birthday party.   I know, a weird dream from childhood.   I decided that year, "why wait?".   Why wait for that special someone to come into my life

Part Three of Four Parts on Radical Self-Love Give Yourself the Gift of Forgiveness I once did something in my life so bad, so unforgiving...even just thinking back to it, makes me shudder and ask myself, "What the hell was I thinking?!"   I mean, this behavior was so against my values, my philosophy of life, that it bolted me out of self-love into self-loathing for quite some time...won't even share what it is...that's how bad! We've all done some things in life that when we look back at the video of our lives...it makes us want to block that little chunk out.   Or, maybe we react with rationalization or justification to our deed, "Well, he....", "Well, I did that, but what she did was so much worse." or "I wouldn't have done that if....." .   Wouldn't it be a heck of a lot easier to just admit our mistake, ask for forgiveness and move on.   Time heals all wounds...even the wounds we create.   People do move o

Radical Self-Love! Part Two of Radical Self-Love is tackling the kicks that life can give us along the way to chip away at our potential for self-love. My last blog dealt with messages we may have received growing up on our self-worth, thereby affecting our self-love potential.   Part two we are examining the things that life can do to us to whip it out of us, temporarily and sometimes permanently, if we let it.   Even if you grew up with loving messages from your primary caretakers,   middle school hits.....you start questioning yourself, your worth and it is all measured by the yard stick carried by the most popular girls.   I don't care how much self-love you have....it is difficult to survive some traumatic stuff as a young girl when the end goal is generally just to fit in. Or, maybe you feel the radiant beauty of self-love until the major break-up occurs with your partner.   Ouch, the rejection, the self-doubt, the feelings of worthlessness. Or, maybe you ha