Self-Love – Day 8 – Knowledge

I am an Activator HealthType. This is just the newest way that I know myself. I am a Leo Sun sign. I am a Blue Storm in Mayan Astrology and a Dog in Chinese. I am an INFP on the Myers-Briggs. And the list goes on and on. I am interested in me. What makes me tick on a cellular, emotional, mental and environmental level.

The funny thing is, the more of these things that I know, the more I turn toward self-love and away from trying to be like everyone else.

A Story:

Last October I began my journey with epigenetics and personalization. It started out by entering my data into an algorhythm which then gave me a HealthType. When I came out as an Activator, I believed it was wrong. No way was I an early-rising, boisterous, firecracker. I didn’t even feel like a Leo Astrological sign. I was reserved, slothful, not outspoken at all…and the list goes on and on.

But I sat with it. And did my research. In the coursework we learned about each HealthType in depth. The more I learned, the more I found that resonated with me.

Almost like an archeologist, as I dug and brushed and picked my way through the information, I discovered long lost parts of myself. As I aligned with my personalized recommendations for food, fitness, environment and mostly, timing of everything, I tapped into a wellspring of energy, passion, and…most of all…self-acceptance.

One of the coaching-points they give particular to the Activator is that they will have seen heaps of judgment in their lives. “Sit down and shut up.” “You’re too…” (fill in the blank…loud…pushy…unfocused…)

And actually, most of the HealthTypes are living well outside their natural rhythms. Societal pressures dictate that we must be something we are not. So we bend, squish and contort into all sorts of uncomfortable positions to meet demands.

How can we possibly love ourselves when we don’t even know who we are?

Today is dedicated to knowledge.

The more you know about YOU, the faster and deeper and better you can love yourself.

Steps:

1. Consult Yourself – What do you already know? Your sun sign, your enneagram, your phenotype?
2. Devour Information – A simple search for personality tests will net a bazillion results. Set up a spam account for yourself on gmail and choose a few to have the results sent to your inbox. Then move on to body types (contact me and I’ll walk you through a free epigenetics test – use your spam account, even), work styles, (I encourage you to look up Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Habits test…every once in awhile he offers it for free)
3. Assimilate – Take yourself to overwhelm in step two, then back off. Let the results languish in your inbox. One by one – pull them up and digest them in the way that you do best. Me? I like to print things out, highlight them, spread them out on the floor and find connections.
4. Assess – Most tests will have a percentage inaccuracy. Use your discernment.
5. Trial and Error – Pick one or two ideas and try them on for size. Like life is one big dressing room…see how each element fits with your world right now. In High Performance Habits, my highest score was on Energy and my lowest on Productivity. (Guess what I have been working on for two months?)
6. Date Yourself – seriously…like you were sitting across the table from a really juicy date…tell your story, tell all about who you are, what your dreams and aspirations are, what you were like when you were a child. For me, I like to stream-of-consciousness write like Virginia Woolf. I am always amazed at where the pen takes me.

The biggest caveat today is to know that you are in complete control! Who you are is who you choose to be. You may have tendencies and predispositions and strong innate character traits, but you decide how you show up every day. You decide how to leverage your strengths and transform your weaknesses. The first step is knowledge. Seek understanding, then acceptance, then reach for love. We are a divine mix, no two the same.

Love how you were made!