As you can’t truly love others if you don’t love yourself; you can’t truly be generous to others if you’re not being generous towards yourself.

This month being dedicated to generosity, a characteristic which is intrinsically related to others, and more precisely giving to others, I wish to take a stand for self-generosity: generosity towards self.

How many of us care about others more and before we care about ourselves? But can we really give our best, if at first, we’re not really reaching our best selves?

After many years reflecting about how to bring more mindfulness in our lives, here is an important matter I would love to see more out there: create yourself first, then share it to the world. This is the greatest gift you could ever give to others.

How to proceed then?

There is someone deep inside of you who is craving for attention; it is your inner child. It can bring the best out of you if you learn how to listen to it.

Two years ago I read a self-help book called The Artist's Way (which I highly recommend) by American author Julia Cameron. While explaining us how to get back in touch with our creative selves, she shares practical exercises to help us get there.

One exercise in particular caught my attention: the artist date. Basically, it intends to make you take the “Artist” within you on a date and do something solo (something that you’ve always wanted to do) at least once a week, in order to stimulate your creative recovery. I really like the idea of “dating” ourselves, it really says it all.

Today I’m still doing it, and I can tell that those are the most inspiring moments in my life, as they create space for us to just do what we feel like doing; and only when we are in that flow that inspiration comes.

Dating myself empowers me to create bubbles of pure happiness and thus has a direct impact on how I interact with others as result.

This month, think about what it would mean to be generous towards yourself, and do your best to implement it as much as you can: take yourself out, cover yourself with beautiful well-thought presents, be attentive, be loving.

At the end of October, reflect on the benefits it has brought to you; I’m sure it will have made you a more generous person!

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Magalie Pedrono calls herself a living creature and spends her time exploring art and philosophy to challenge the way we live and implement new concepts that will foster self-awareness and social interaction. Currently working on the launch of modern_monk, a blog about spirituality for the modern times: stay tuned here.