(Oranjestad)—Sabrina Sonensein has been a psychologist since 2008, with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in clinical psychology. With this, she hosted carious kinds of workshops, but when it comes to self-love, Sonensein expressed that this a first for her.
Sabrina recognizing within herself and other people the tendency to always go the extra mile for others, while going as far as ignoring our own needs: “To give yourself the same time and dedication means to love yourself just as much,” she stated. The same thing is true in terms of empathy, according to her; People are more inclined to have compassion for others but rarely for ourselves.
Often times, people think that self-love means doing your hair, or treating yourself to a drink or a spa-appointment, “but self-love is much more than that. It is accepting ourselves for the good and the bad. It’s accepting our body, loving ourselves fully and prioritizing ourselves more.”
For Sonensein, it’s not only important for adults to know their own value and own it, but she think it’s also crucial for young people and kids to learn the same thing: “If we don’t cultivate self-love from a young age and teach our children this, in the future they will also struggle self-love and self-acceptance. Then comes the bullying, the negative perspective of their own body, the low-esteem and more. It’s important for children to learn they are worth much more than what they think,” Sonensein pointed out.
For this reason, she thought it would be a great idea to host a workshop on self-love, to not only explain what it is, but to also demonstrate how to practice it: “Some people may say it’s selfish or that it’s narcissistic, but it really isn’t. The importance of someone knowing their worth is so that they could love and value someone else fully,” she explained.
She also mentioned the problem of generation mindset and trauma, which often time are not even of the person themselves. For this, Sonensein pointed out that it is important for people to be able to look in the mirror, accept and recognize what they can work on and have more compassion to those in your family that maybe was never able to be aware of themselves: “you have to look at yourself in the mirror and acknowledge your essence. There is nothing better than healing the mind and body, and to be able to look in the mirror and say ‘I love you’.”
This is why she wants to teach people that when you create an affirmation for yourself, you have to believe in it and it has to be something that comes from yourself, that is important to you. This is how you heal and this is how you become aware that things do indeed get better,” she said.
Her workshop takes place on May 27th at Baz-rrr Galleria near Harbour House, starting from 9:30am to 1pm. The cost of this workshop is 85 florins. Those that may be interested could get more information on the Facebook page ‘Mindful Love Aruba’ or through Sonensein’s e-mail at sjsonens@gmail.com.
“I love you, but I love me more” are the work that Samantha wants to focus on in her workshop, so that people can start to acknowledge that self-love does indeed exist and is something very valuable that everyone has within themselves.
She gave the example that on Aruba, there are many people that go through a lot and end up not loving themselves or do not have the same compassion for themselves as they have for others.
“Often times we want to do things for other people. As a mother or father, we want to sacrifice everything for our children and our family, but how about we also focus on ourselves? This way we can grow into a better person. I noticed that is lacking within our culture, because we think that self-care equals self-love, but the former is only temporary, and is just one factor. Sleeping well and choosing the right friends are also forms of self-love. There is nothing better than to be honest with ourselves for ourselves, for the better version of ourselves,” Sonensein finalized.
