Author: L. Clementi

Harnessing the Power of the Lunar Year

L. ClementiLeave a comment

What started as a ritual to reset my space before the new year has grown into a yearly tradition. Every December, as the year winds down, I begin the process of clearing out clutter—not just physical clutter, but emotional and mental clutter as well. It’s become a way to create space for new opportunities and fresh energy. Sometimes, when I’ve been feeling stuck or stagnant, I turn to this practice mid-year, too. Whether it’s rearranging a room, purging items that no longer serve me, or simply rebalancing the elements in my space, the act of resetting my surroundings always brings a sense of relief and clarity.

The ritual has taken on a rhythm of its own. It’s not just about cleaning; it’s about shedding what no longer fits, making room for what’s to come. It’s as though each year, I’m clearing a path for the next chapter of my life—inviting in not just physical order, but a mental and emotional realignment.

There’s something incredibly powerful about how my home feels when it’s in balance. Harmony in the home leads to positive feelings that promote self-love. The shift is subtle but undeniable—things start moving forward, both in the energy of my space and in the opportunities that arise. Over time, I’ve come to realize that it’s more than just a tradition; it’s a tool I use to manifest the future I want. A physical reset that echoes deeply on a personal level, reminding me that I have the power to shape both my environment and my life.

Nurturing Self-love This Holiday Season

L. ClementiLeave a comment

The holidays are magical, but let’s be honest — they can also be a little overwhelming. With all the gift-giving, cooking, and gathering, it’s easy to forget one important thing: you. In the rush to make everyone else’s season bright, we sometimes neglect to nurture our own well-being.

But here’s the thing: you can enjoy the holidays without feeling burnt out. The secret is simple: add a few soul-nurturing activities to your holiday to-do list. When you make time to recharge, you’ll show up for others with even more joy and energy!

Here are a few of my own favorite ways to fill up my self-love bucket during the holidays:

  1. Tidy up my space — A clean home brings me peace and makes everything feel festive.
  2. Treat myself to a new holiday outfit — There’s something about wearing something new that makes me feel extra cheerful.
  3. Sing along to Christmas carols in the car — No one’s judging you for belting out “Jingle Bells” at the top of your lungs!
  4. Sip on eggnog (or my mom’s special Christmas tea) — A cozy, comforting drink always lifts my spirits.
  5. Reflect on how far I’ve come — The holidays are a perfect time to feel grateful for my growth and accomplishments.

Remember, the holidays are about more than just checking off a list — they’re about embracing the joy that fills your heart. So, take a deep breath, savor the little moments, and fill your cup first, so you can share all the love with those around you!

What are your favorites?

Reset or Restart?

L. ClementiLeave a comment

The pandemic may have served as a reset button for the world, but I’ve recently experienced my own reset, and it’s been a positive change.

I started this blog to create a space for sharing examples of self-love. Over the past year, some personal goals have come to fruition, which led me to postpone my return here. Now that I’m settled into my new home and job, I’m excited to dive back in.

One thing I’ve learned is that self-love isn’t a destination. We can find a good spot, but it requires ongoing nurturing to influence every part of our lives. Let’s keep this journey going!

Have you experienced a reset or restart in your life since the pandemic?

Self-care or Self-love

L. Clementi1 Comment

This blog is dedicated to highlighting how people demonstrate self-love so we can take those examples and learn from each other.  Our goal is to highlight and apply  these examples of self-love that will help us increase the levels of self-love within ourselves so we can be more successful in our everyday lives. So I’d like to begin our on-going conversation about self-love by defining what it is and what it’s not.  I’ve noticed that sometimes they are used interchangeably.  Self- care is used a lot these days especially during this pandemic.  In some professions such as the medical field or in education for example where you take care of others, self-care is used as a way of preventing burnout and to cope with the high demands of the job.

So what’s the difference?  I see self-care as the things that you do for yourself to replenish energy and continue to be effective in what you are doing.  It’s literally emotional and physical maintenance  that you engage in to balance your responsibilities it includes the habits that we engage in that support our well-being. The person who stops by the coffee shop at the start of the day or by the bar at the end of the week is a person that is treating themselves to their favorite beverage as a way of getting through the day or celebrating an accomplishment.  Either are examples of self-care.  It’s doing the things that bring us pleasure.  During stressful times  self-care is a life-line that brings bright spots into your life that allow you to cope and handle tougher parts of your day.  My go-to self-care routine has always been a warm bath. I think this became a favorite self-care activity that I started when I became a mother.   I usually saved it for a long day or as a treat on a Friday night to wind down from a challenging week at work. Self-care are also those things that we do to maintain our image or our bodies such as getting our hair done, shopping for clothes, manicures etc.

Self-love on the other hand is a mindset.  It’s how we think about ourselves.  Self-love brings with it confidence and security. You know you are enough and there’s nothing to prove to anyone.   When you are confident and secure things are effortless.  Everything flows.  You are in a balanced state of being therefore you don’t have the need to replenish your energy or indulge in comfort food or activities because you feel complete.  There’s no sense of lack or need within you.  How much self-love you have for yourself determines the level of self-care that you will need to apply to keep yourself going.  For example,  self-love will mean that you set healthy boundaries at work.  You put in the hours that allow you to feel professionally accomplished without feeling overworked or burned out.  The same for your personal relationships. You have a balance with what you give and receive and you are comfortable in your own skin. There’s less reliance on self-care habits or other people’s validation.

A person who has had a hard week at work may choose to come home on a Friday and  sit on their couch and watch Netflix.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with binging on Netflix, but the person that has no other choice of activity because of their low energy level may in fact be suffering from lower levels of self-love.  I can remember a time when this was one of my self-care activities at the end of the week. I noticed that after a while the routine of binging on a tv show was not lifting my energy. This was because I was not going to the root of the problem.  Not having balance during the week meant that I had to use my weekend to catch up on maintaining my home and running errands on the weekend.  I wasn’t spending time working on hobbies or recharging my energy for the creativity or problem solving that I needed for the upcoming week.   The exhaustion I felt at the end of the week was coming from the pressure I was giving myself to prove my worth at work. It was essentially a lack of self-love. I saw other people receiving promotions at work so my thought was that despite the positive results I had, I somehow was not enough if I wasn’t receiving the validation from my superiors. I now know that I first needed to give myself the validation and credit I was seeking from others. Feeling accomplished in what we do starts within us.

So how do you shift from an over emphasis of self-care to more self-love? I found purpose in my career.  I love my work and I do it for the pleasure it gives me.  It’s great to receive recognition but I give that to myself when I give my work 100% of my effort. Another mind shift for me was  choosing more healthy habits  that I could sustain such as walking every day, drinking a gallon of water a day and eating less sugar.  These habits gave me higher levels of energy and I felt more fit which contributed to an increase in my self-love because I was happier overall with myself.  With increased level of energy I can do more with my time.  I don’t think it matters what order you do things. What matters is the balance. Now I set boundaries for myself within which to get my work done and it leaves room for all those other things that I enjoy doing.  In summary, self-care is necessary and a step towards reaching higher levels of self-love. We cannot get stuck in our self-care routines in a way that these self-care habits or routines become band-aids for the wounds that we develop for not having enough self-love.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Gratitude

L. ClementiLeave a comment

The last of the china has been put away and the leftovers are labeled and stored in the freezer. There are at least 4-6 lunches and dinners that I won’t have to worry about preparing thanks to these leftovers, but Thanksgiving is so much more than a big family dinner. The Thanksgiving holiday asks us to be reflective and count our blessings as well as appreciate those around us. A grateful heart is one that accepts love in the many forms that are offered. A smile, a compliment, a new friendship are examples of small tokens one can receive that don’t have a monetary value but can bring joy nevertheless and fill our self-love bucket making us feel appreciated and cared for.

Going through this holiday it may be easier to list all the good which has come our way including our accomplishments and our successes. I have learned however to also be grateful for the unexpected gift of the life lessons we encounter. Sometimes we call them challenges, sometimes they are outright failures. The truth is that our setbacks provide us with the most personal growth and give us currency or preparation to move to the next level in our lives. Although painful, life lessons help give our life meaning and purpose.

I remember a time when I wanted to promote to a higher position in my career. I went through multiple interviews and received many rejections. The rejections that were the hardest were from the times when I came the closest to the desired outcome. It was during this time in my life that I recall coming to the realization that I although I may be qualified for the higher position that I was seeking, I still had lessons to learn in the job where I was working. By lessons I don’t just mean the skills of doing the actual job but rather the spiritual and emotional lessons that would make me grow as a person. Instead of focusing on the next job, or why I wasn’t getting it, I started to embrace my work and stayed receptive to the lessons that it offered. I looked at my interactions in my job through a new lens of acceptance and gratitude. It wasn’t too long after the shift in my mindset that I finally promoted. I’m thinking of this now because this year was filled with similar challenges. I’m grateful that I have those other experiences to fall back on and know that obstacles have a silver lining which may look like increased resilience, creativity in problem solving, and many other skills and benefits. The difficulties I encounter are feedback from the universe of the areas where I need more self-love. I’m grateful that I can see this and work on it to improve.

Gratitude is a feeling that we have to practice everyday not just once a year during the holiday. There are people who keep a gratitude journal to write down what they are grateful for everyday. I personally like to say affirmations.

Here are some gratitude affirmations I came up with when things get tough:

I am thankful for the resiliency and strength that I showed today.

I am thankful for the lessons that I learned today.

I am grateful for the process not just the destination.

The Launch

L. ClementiLeave a comment

To celebrate the launch of the blog I had a pop-up event with small businesses that help to promote self-love in others. The vendors were all women and they sell products that I use myself or have purchased for others to show appreciation or gratitude. When we give to others out of a place of love and not obligation, whether it is a physical gift or it is our time and attention we are reflecting our own level of self-love. I believe that when you give to others selflessly you get the added benefit of sharing in the joy of the receiver.

The women behind these businesses have their own stories of self-love to share in their journey to get their business off the ground and they are models to others in how they have persevered in their pursuit of their goals.

I want to give special thanks to the small business that participated in this event. Please check them out and mention the blog for special offers:

On Instagram:

@ginavallejog.photography for the fabulous pictures @littleprettycake @thelifeofpeonies @bella_sakurastyle @missroxymontessori @sunnydesignsbyv

On facebook:

Andrea Holiman-Accountability Coach

Website:

Create your own story by Melissa- meliowl.origamiowl.com

http://www.marykay.com/wmaxwell

Sophia’s Key

Featured L. Clementi1 Comment

The idea of “Sophia’s Key” came to me in a dream. Sophia means wisdom in Greek. It’s a word or name that embodies the divine feminine. It’s a female energy of knowing and intuition. At the end of the first year of the pandemic, after many months of praying for guidance it came to me that self-love is the answer to most of our troubles. Thus the name for this space. When we have self-love, we have peace and harmony and our acts and our relationships embody the same. If we can love ourselves, we reflect that onto others. Whether you are wishing to manifest your goals, your twin-flame reunion or simply achieve an increased satisfaction with your life, you have to start with self-love. Acquiring self-love however is easier said than done.

Since I’m a teacher at heart and by profession I want to go about my practice of self-love the way we do in the field of education. As educators, we ask questions and we make observations to better refine our practice. We guide our practice by the results that we see in our practice. I would like to apply these principles of learning and teaching to the quest for higher levels of self-love. I’ve noticed that there are people around me that excel in different areas of their life but lack in others. The purpose of this space will be to learn from others the way they exemplify self-love so that we can apply it in our own lives and see it fill more areas of our life. Sometimes people are not aware of the wonderful example they provide to others so my hope is to create a platform for people who are doing amazing things to showcase and encourage them in their work. By elevating the efforts of others we can collectively reach a higher level of understanding of what self-love is and how it heals ourself and those around us.