Reflections on Love 365

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The days of Love 365 are numbered. This Friday, it will be over. Sure, some of the posts got up shamefully late, but I will have kept my New Year's resolution to think of something new to love about myself for every single day of 2010.

Last December, when I got the idea for Love 365, I was skeptical that I would ever actually do it. I had written a post mentioning the idea of doing something similar as a resolution, and somehow it just clicked for me that, hey, I should put my money where my mouth is and do that. I felt that it would seem too narcissistic to do it alone, though: I needed to get all of you involved if it was going to work. Of course, at the time that was my main fear: what if no one wanted to participate. I called my boyfriend to ask him about it, and he encouraged me to go for it even if I wasn't sure anyone would want to join me in my self-love fest.

You guys, I am so, so glad I decided to go through with it. I've never kept a New Year's resolution before, and this was the best one I think I could have picked, and for several reasons.

Love 365 has been a godsend in those times when I don't feel so self-assured. The best days to have to love myself have, surprisingly, been the days when I really just didn't want to. There have been days when the last thing I would have wanted was to think of something nice to say, but having this commitment to keep made it completely necessary. I learned that in those times of feeling lousy about myself, one of the best things to do was just try my best to think of something nice. It was hard, but afterward, my mood was at least slightly improved and things didn't seem so bad. It's the times when we feel the worst that we need the love the most. I learned that I am very capable of giving myself love when I need it.

Now, I have a positively huge collection of wonderful things about me-- again, sounds a bit narcissistic, but is it really such a bad thing? When I feel down, I can look back at the posts on this blog or in my notebook at all the things that I have, at one time or another, felt makes me worthy, valuable, and lovable. I have a way of reminding myself that I don't need to be the girl who hurts her own feelings. I don't think anyone else should do that to themselves, and I don't deserve it, either.

Doing Love 365 proved something wonderful to me about you, too. I was afraid that no one hear would want to participate and that I would be alone in my journey to self-love. What I didn't want for this project was for it to come off as self-centered, and my comfort level with making it part of this blog hinged on whether it caught on. Though it was surely more popular at the start, I've had a steady flow of people wanting to share what makes them amazing, and I have been so, so grateful for that. I'm impressed with you like you wouldn't believe, and I can't fathom how I ever had any doubts that you would want to join in. I realized that I have created a space, however small, on the Internet that attracts a truly awesome kind of person, the kind that I have been hoping to find out there. Your willingness to give yourselves the love and appreciation you deserve has been even more inspiring to me than it has been to do so for myself. I have looked forward each and every day to the potential of finding more Love 365 e-mails, and I'll miss that in 2011 much more than I could know right now.

So really, this post is a "thank you," sincerely, to those of you that have helped make this project-- this year-- so amazing. We did it together: 365 days of self-love! Congratulations, everyone!

Well, okay, almost. 365 days haven't passed quite yet: the last installation of Love 365 will be this Friday, so if you have any more love to share, pretty please e-mail me at chickensoupforthedorkysoul@gmail.com.