Love. There are many ways to define it. There is love between partners, friends, family; long-lost love; mother-daughter love; even work-related love. (Yes, it is possible to love what you do!)

But for as many examples we can give of what love may look or feel like, the most important and often, most neglected form of love is that which you give yourself. Loving yourself implies…

-giving yourself time to be free.

-knowing when enough is enough.

-allowing yourself freedom of expression.

-forgiving yourself and others, too.

-being an example of self-love for others.

-finding that which makes life beautiful.

-staying wildly alive.

As mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, colleagues, and bosses, we walk into societal and familial roles with perceived expectations. We complete our duties and then return home to other duties. But where are we, as individuals, in this picture? What causes us to gasp and makes our hearts skip a beat? What keeps us alive—not just breathing, but truly, wildly alive? That’s what gets lost in societal roles and expectations. We become who we are supposed to; not who we are intended to.

So find it for yourself—what makes you come alive? Some people best express themselves with a tool—a pencil to write, a camera to capture, a shovel to recreate. And others allow everything to drop away. They delve within by dancing, singing, or simply and purely exhaling amidst Nature’s serene landscape.

Once you find the means to breathe yourself back to life, stay there for awhile. Take that pencil or that camera or your dancing feet and give yourself the freedom to truly let go. Explore, expand, and then breathe it all back in.

When you live an unburdened life—a life with meaning, wisdom, and depth—you show others around you how they too can live their lives with wild abandon.