Have you ever taken the time to truly appreciate yourself? No, really. Have you ever taken the time to think about the things that you love about yourself?

This past week I was in Recruitment Counselor training to prepare for Fall Sorority recruitment, and I did an icebreaker with our new Recruitment Counselors so that they could get to know one another. Every round I had them break up into new groups and answer a funny question like “What is your favorite item on the value menu at Taco Bell?” or “What is your favorite reality tv show?” (ahem, The Bachelor of course…) On the very last question I had them pair up with one other person and asked the question, “What is one thing that you love about yourself?” It was interesting to see the reactions with that question because we had gone from superficial funny questions to ending with a deeper more serious question. I could see from some of the faces around the room that the question took some off guard like they really hadn’t ever thought about the question and didn’t know what to answer.

Of course it got me thinking, would I have been able to even answer my own question without really taking the time to sit down and think about it? It made me realize how often we don’t take the time to appreciate what we love about ourselves and how it’s not natural for us to have an attitude of gratitude. Rather it’s so much easier to just plain have an attitude and pick ourselves apart on the things we don’t like about ourselves.

So as a challenge to myself and a challenge to you – take a moment this next week to reflect and write an answer to the question, “What do I love about myself?” In other words, write yourself your own personal love letter and bring forth your attitude of gratitude!