It is more blessed to give than to receive, so give to yourself as much as you can as often as you can.
-- LaVerne Porter Wheatley Perry

Make today all about giving to yourself. Here’s the recipe –

Climb out of bed and kneel for prayer. Ask God to bless those around you and to touch you in the places you need healing. Then sing your favorite song or the song that’s speaking to your heart today (over this scribe, it’s Karen Clark Sheard’s “Favor,” Carlton Pearson’s “I Know the Lord Will Make a Way,” and Smokie Norful’s “Um Good”). Sing loudly, on key or off – doesn’t matter, it’s all about what you’re feeling. When it’s time to get dressed, don’t just put on anything because it’s clean and you don’t have to iron it; wear that ensemble that makes you feel good because you know it accentuates everything that makes you look good, even if you do have to iron it. Then feed yourself a nourishing breakfast and try not to rush through it so that the food will digest properly and you won’t be hungry so soon.

When you get to the office – if you even decide to go in today – protect yourself from the regular office junk like gossip, idle banter, and anything else that can be injurious to your psyche. Keep the morning’s song in your head or on your CD player. Light a candle; read a Bible verse and keep the Bible open so that you can refer to it as you need to – and know that you will need to because the enemy will be having trouble with your sense of peace and will try to attack it in every corner. Eat a healthy lunch and snack on something good for you to hold you over until it’s time to go home. Oh, and bounce around and walk your mother sway or father’s swagger.

Check your pulse, blood pressure, cholesterol, and your mind’s eye. Take in some physical activity, get a good jog going then make sure you get some brain calisthenics in – a few brain teasers like the Stroop Test (say the color the words are printed in without any mistakes in 15 seconds – red, green, blue, yellow, pink, blue, green, orange, red, blue) or speak the alphabet, starting with the letter B and skipping every other letter, in less than 10 seconds. Be sure to laugh at yourself – without calling yourself a name – then push yourself further when you make a mistake.

When you get home, after you’ve loved yourself with a healthy dinner of vegetables and the proper proteins and relaxed a bit with your family and/or friends, pile up in a bath of sea salts and chamomile or a little ylang-ylang and bergamot – not too much though, you don’t want to drown out your own sweet scents. When you’re done, dried off, and moisturized up, and ready for bed, kneel again and thank God for getting you through this day in His favor and ask Him to bless you and the world while you rest and prepare for another day.

Then, take in some more physical and emotional activity! It’ll make you sleep well and dream good dreams.

Today, and tomorrow, bless yourself with as much of what you need as you can. And then do it again, and again, and again...

Sadiqqa © 2007