YOUR SELF- ESTEEM

LONELY HEARTS CLUB: MEMBERSHIP CANCELLED

Are you lonely? Yearning for some company, companionship, some stimulating connections? Really...?

Well, here's some news: there are too many things to do, and too many people to know to allow yourself to feel that way! Loneliness is a feeling, but if you let it become a way of life, one of these ol' mornings you are going to wake up with your better days having passed you by. It's true.

You should wake up, alright. Wake up now, rather than later, and smell the possibilities. Don't join the Lonely Hearts Club just yet. It has way too many members already. Cancel any thought of joining.

Try making an agreement with yourself to not listen to another "living all alone" sad song. Stop having pity parties. It may be time for you to swing to the beat of a different dance, to sing the words of a new song, to seek out some entertainment outside the "walls" you have put around your life.

Feelings of loneliness hurt. The loneliness seems so real. So, before you start reaching out, reach within first, and start working on that lonely heart condition in ways that you and only you can help yourself; in ways that only you can aid in healing yourself; in ways that you and only you can love yourself. Look in the mirror. You're special, and worthy of all of the self-love and self-esteem in the world. Say these words aloud: "I love myself. I love myself. I love myself!" That wasn't so hard, was it?

Now is a good time for you to meet the challenge of love vs. lonely: you against yourself, the positive choices against the negative introspection. The loneliness can overtake you only if you let it. It can overtake you only if you don't fight it.

The condition won't disappear until you try to beat it. Strategies for whipping loneliness are simple: Getting up, getting your mind made up, getting going and getting involved. Get it? Good.

S.R.F.