The Gift of Love

This gift of love is something that we have been born with and seldom realise it. We were all born in love and out of love and it is love that keps us alive. This makes it one of the most importantthings we have to offer others and most importantly ourselves. Yes, we do need to love ourselves just as much and perhaps even more than we love others. We needto love ourselves enough to say no todomestic violence. We need to love ourselves enough to believe that we deserve better than we have had till now. We need to love ourselves enough to dream again and then to follow our dreams.

This is something that we all too often allow to die within us as we struggle just to survive our life within an abusive relationship. Leaving the relationship is simply the first step in the recovery process, not unlike the acoholic putting down their bottle. The next step and the one that will take a lifetime complete is finding ourselves. Survivng the abuse defined us for so very long and for intensive purposes it became who we were. Yet it is not who we are and they is so much more to us than just surviving abuse. We need to learn to do something that we once took for granted, love ourselves. We can only accommplish this by taking small steps and by living our lives one day at a time.

I have been in recovery groups for over a quarter century and I have learned all too well that taking things a day at a time can be very hard some days. When things are rough and you are filled with doubts about yourself ad what or why you are trying to live without abuse, it is ok to take it a minute at a time. You do not have to solve all your problems and find all your solutions today. Chances are that if you are trying to findall your answers today,you will end up battered and brused from the beating you will give yourself for not finding all the answers by the end of the day. So, begin by loving yourself enough to give yourself a well deserved break. It will get better and know that it already has.