Feb/Mar 2026 Aspire Magazine FULL Issue | Page 90

For over three decades, I didn’ t just dislike myself— I actively went out of my way to sabotage myself. Although I didn’ t know it at the time, I was indeed treating myself like dirt. All through my twenties I picked inappropriate men who were not right for me in myriad ways: drug addicts, unavailable men, or men who were super clingy and liked the idea of me rather than who I really was. All my relationships were superficial. I overspent, overate, overworked, all in an effort to avoid the sinking sensation that perhaps there might be a gentler, kinder, and more compassionate way to live. I first had to identify my patterns in order to break them and free myself from the selfsabotaging behavior. Identify your patterns, the situations you keep finding yourself in, that no longer serves you. As you recognize them you will begin to see how they are no longer helping you and you can release them for good.

When I looked around at my circle of friends, my family, and in society, it became obvious that most people don’ t really love themselves. It’ s not that we don’ t want to. We just don’ t know how. And most of us aren’ t talking about it. We aren’ t walking around saying we don’ t love ourselves; rather, it’ s in our behavior, our way of existing. It’ s in our constant quest to be happier, skinner, smarter, and richer— outward expressions