​When you love yourself and treat yourself with the compassion you deserve, you prioritize your own happiness. With your happiness as a top priority, you finally can take the actions needed to build the life you’ve always wanted.

One of those actions could be letting go.

Sunsets are sometimes synonymous with sad goodbyes.

Sometimes those goodbyes are beyond your control, forced upon you,

and sometimes you're the one saying goodbye.

When it's you who initiates the goodbye, you do it because ultimately you decided it's what's best for you, whether it's leaving a job, a relationship, etc.

But when the tables are turned and it's not you who's initiating the goodbye, you naturally become scared, afraid of being out on your own, afraid of the unknown.

It can feel like the ground has dropped underneath you and that you're floating, just swaying without any anchoring stability.

Your feelings can also turn towards anger, being mad at the person/situation that said the "goodbye".

But remember, when you leave a situation because you've decided it's what's best for you,

they have also decided that this is what's best for them.

Trying to fight it would just lead to resentment and nothing good would come out of it.

In Deepak Chopra's book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, his 4th law is The Law of Least Effort.

Here, he says to go with the flow of the universe, to not resist. If we do fight the flow, it just causes pain for everyone involved.

So if a "goodbye" is forced upon you, accept it, don't fight the flow, and just go.

Of course, this is much easier said than done, and that's when we come to self-respect, self-love.

You can try to change who you are, but if it's not for self-growth and it's just to conform,

then you'll try to be someone you're not, which again, will lead to resentment towards others and yourself.

One definition of self-love is "taking care of your own needs and not sacrificing your well-being to please others. Self-love means not settling for less than you deserve."

This painting, the 1st of the collection “Journey”, represents the "letting go" - having the strength to not fight the flow.

Hopefully, we can all find the self-love we need to stay true to who we are.

With self-love comes self-confidence, the confidence you need to know that you are enough.

• 24” x 36”

• Acrylic paint, Foam Modeling Clay, Digital

• Acid-free, PH-neutral, poly-cotton base

• 20.5 mil (0.5 mm) thick canvas

• Canvas fabric weight: 13.9 oz/yd² (470 g/m²)

• Mounting brackets included

• Hand-glued solid wood stretcher bars

• 1.5″ (3.81 cm) deep