Lisa Andria, a transformation coach from Long Beach, CA, explains the importance of shifting inward to get to know and love yourself first. Especially for women, Andria says that we are conditioned to nurture and take care of everyone else, often at our own expense. The price we pay for this self-abandonment is steep, many times leading to codependent behaviors that keep us stuck in the cycle of people-pleasing in order to get our own good feels. Andria then drives the point home that the key to healing from the underlying feelings of unworthiness that fuel codependency, is forgiveness. We need to let go of all of it by forgiving both ourselves and others. This in no way gives anyone a pass for wrong-doing, but frees up our own emotional energy to become the best version of ourselves. In essence, forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves and a way to reclaim our personal power. This is even truer when we make the shift to being grateful for the growth that came from those painful circumstances. We then flip the script from wounds to wisdom. When we cultivate self-love everything else falls into place.
