Whitney Houston's version of "Greatest Love of All," has always been a favorite of mine, especially over the past few years, when I recognized that I wasn't loving myself enough. She recorded the song in 1985 for her self-titled debut album and it became a number one hit!
I started recording my cover of the song last year, but after my dog Reesee passed away, I turned my focus inward to take care of myself as I was dealing with grief. For nearly nine years, most of my focus was on taking care of my girl, and she gave me so much unconditional love. Once I was without her physical presence, I had to not only remind myself of our forever bond, but I also had to give myself some much needed love.
The truth is, ever since I was about 10 years old, I've struggled with self worth. I grew up in an incredibly loving family, but once I hit that age, I started to experience hurtful behavior from those outside my home. Whether it was classmates being mean or friends leaving me out, all of this was internalized and I believed that there must be something wrong with me, not them. Looking back, I honestly don't know why I allowed myself to think that way. I knew I was unique and had strong convictions and beliefs. I've always been a wise old soul too, so I didn't really vibe as well with kids my own age. I cared too much about how others perceived me, and instead of fully embracing how awesome I was, I shamed myself for being different.
Over the years, I've still experienced this type of behavior from others, but I've had a breakthrough recently and realized I no longer care about how they choose to act towards me. I have my dignity and I know who I am. My worth is not based on the behavior of others. I am a soul filled with love and kindness, and if that somehow doesn't vibe, that's on them, not me! This breakthrough has allowed me to truly love myself: "I found the greatest love of all inside of me."
At the beginning of the month, when I shared my mantra for this year on social media, I will love myself and watch what happens next, I knew that it was time to share my cover of this song. I've decided that for 2024, I will devote myself to self-love and not putting myself down. I've been making it a daily practice to use affirmations and positive self-talk, get out on walks in nature, do what I love, and visualize the life that I want. It is my intention to eliminate my negative self-talk and I believe that by doing that, I allow for more magic to enter my life!
Our thoughts are incredibly powerful and according to a National Science Foundation study, we have between 60-80 thousand thoughts per day. About 80% of those thoughts are negative, which seems way too high, but I know it must be true. That's why choosing positive and loving self-talk has felt so empowering. It's helped me stand up and be the star of my own show. I've been able to choose gracious thoughts when things don’t go as planned, and well-deserved praise for my achievements and my resilience. In recent months, I've been listening to at least one of my song recordings daily as a reminder of how brave and amazing I am for expressing myself!
What are some daily practices that you have incorporated to enhance your own self-love?When you’re in this mindset of love, you are avoiding negative vibrations like
self-judgement or fear, and you are free to be you. Those vibes of love and freedom are all throughout this song. It's about standing strong in your truth and dignity, which both come from loving yourself. You’re letting go of thoughts or energies that no longer serve you and saying, "I choose me, and I love me, and no one can take that away!" You no longer depend on love from others first to feel worthy because you now know that you are already worthy for being uniquely you. Your love comes first and it's what matters the most.
Anything is possible when we learn to love ourselves because we are basically opening the door to the magic of the unexpected! Deciding to launch my blog and share my music happened because I was beginning to love myself and truly embrace who I am. Yes, there are still times when I'm critical of myself, especially when it comes to my singing voice. Over the past six months, during my recording process, I've started to ease into it in a more gracious and loving way and it's because I stopped comparing myself to other singers. I really had to get out of my head as I embraced my inner diva and tackled this Whitney song, which seemed impossible at first. Without the pressures of trying to sound like her, or anyone else who has covered the song, I was able to still channel her vibe and bring through my emotions, and I knew that would be enough.
Recording this song felt like I was giving myself the warmest and most gentle hug.
Little me from over 30 years ago (which you will see a photo of in my video for about 10 seconds), would be so thrilled that I am finally learning to love myself! No one can ever take that love away...not one soul!
It is my hope that for those of you who have gone through a similar journey with self worth, that you are also discovering true love for yourselves. "Find your strength," in your self-love and shine on friends!
I want to take a moment and honor the children, who are "our future," as mentioned at the beginning of the song. January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and last year, I shared a blog post and my song cover of "Bless the Beasts and Children," to bring awareness to these horrific crimes done to the most innocent and purest souls. While I'm relieved that so many organizations are rescuing children, there's still so much more that needs to happen to end this $150 billion dollar industry once and for all. With over 25 million victims worldwide, 27% are children and 66% are girls. That's nearly 7 million children, which is disturbing and unfathomable.
So I ask that by embracing who we are meant to be and loving ourselves, that we can extend our prayers, healing vibes, and even donations to these organizations that are trying to eradicate human trafficking. I recently contributed to Saving Innocence, an organization based in Los Angeles that rescues children from trafficking and provides aftercare for them.
I want to make it my mission to bring awareness and shed light on the human trafficking crisis. If we don't talk about it enough and try to help in any way we can, we are allowing the loss of humanity itself, and of love itself. We cannot have true world peace if these horrendous crimes continue. Our world is in need of healing and our awareness and action are so crucial at this time. I believe we can do more together than individually in this mission. Will you join me?
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