hug yourself, you deserve it

Lately, after the ending of my relationship, I've been feeling the intense need for a hug. Excuse the transparency (it's what I'm all about - and the title of this blog).

Paired with an intense pain in my leg, exiting a year of tremendous stress & turmoil, I just gave myself a hug.

It felt nice. It felt like a soft touch to every nerve ending I have in my body.

It felt like what I needed.

Often enough we crave outside tenderness, without realising we are our biggest source of it.

The last few days I started incorporating a number of shifts: eating better, light yoga and stretching and, quite literally, patting myself on the back and giving me hugs.

I felt a change. I can't deny it.

I felt a surge of softness appear in me. Moments where I approached myself with a little more tenderness. With a more gentle mind, a more relaxed state. With a little more gratitude towards who I am and who I am becoming.

As we exit 2025 and enter 2026, with extreme joy I look back on the last three months. Moves I made were set in motion almost a decade ago. Sometimes, it just takes time. Like a plant burried under the dirt for years, watered gently, one day a sprout surprised me. Almost shocked me.

The biggest lesson I would pull out in this year is: Keep gentle, appreciate You, rely on your own efforts. Don't lose faith no matter how dark it gets. And in the end: The ideas we carry will one day come to fruition and see the light of day.

Never give up.