If you’ve ever had someone you care about walk out on you, you know it hurts.

Abandonment is a shocking feeling.

Yet few people realise they’re abandoning themselves on a daily basis.

When we come home from a stressful day and reach for that glass of wine to take the edge of things, we’re numbing ourself.

Abandoning ourself.

Blinding ourself to what’s really going on for us.

Keeping our feelings supressed, so we don’t have to deal with the truth of the situation causing the pain in our life.

But drinking isn’t the only way we abandon ourself.

Television, work, socialising and so-called obligations are all ways that we keep ourself too busy to be with ourself.

We turn up the noise of our life, to avoid being with ourself.

To avoid feeling.

And this is how we distract ourselves from ourself.

This is true abandonment.

As a child with few real friends I learnt to keep busy, studying hard, working in my parent’s business, playing in bands, performing on stage; all to stop me from feeling alone.

To stop me from feeling the pain inside.

And in living a super busy lifestyle most of my adult life, I essentially walked out on myself.

Abandoned myself.

We can only avoid ourself for so long, before the deep pains of our past bubble up to the surface.

Some people will experience this pain by way of a brain tumour, others a divorce or the need to file for bankruptcy.

For me, I was almost put in a mental home after years of severe clinical depression and frequent suicide attempts.

When we’re not experiencing love, we’re experiencing fear.

The fear we experience on a daily basis only serves to steal us away from ourself, to disconnect us from who we truly are.

When we’re in fear, we make bad choices, we procrastinate, we struggle and as a result, we waste this precious gift we have, called life.

Yet when we choose to be with ourself and experience love, everything changes instantly.

Like a Prince kissing his Snow White we get our life back.

We feel connected, life flows with ease, and we have the honour of starring in our own love story.

The only real obligation we have in life, is to love ourself.

And the best way to love ourself is to stop… be silent and be with ourself.

To date ourself.

Only when we can be with ourself can we get the understanding we need to create a better life for ourself.

A life minus the stress, the debt, the fear, the struggle.

So this week I urge you to carve out time to be with yourself.

Listen to yourself.

If emotions rise to the surface, allow yourself to feel them.

For once you feel those emotions, you will then be free of them.

And the more we free ourselves of supressed emotions, the freer we are to live life.

To love life.

To live happily right now.