In developing a healthier life for myself and focusing on positive actions, like meditating, eating good food, sleeping better, and exercising, I gain a deeper appreciation for life. For my life. I feel healthier and happier. I enjoy simply being. The joy of moving within the world comes out of treating my body and my mind with respect. With love.
I read an article on maitri by Pema Chodron, a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. Essentially, the core concept of maitri is to cultivate unconditional love, but in particular an unconditional love and friendliness towards oneself. This is a concept I have been trying to create for myself. Rather than be hard on myself for my failures and short-comings, I take these opportunities to learn and gently talk to myself about the experience. What happened? Where can I improve on this matter? There is no point in punishing myself. Often, we already suffer enough from our mistakes. Why prolong our own suffering by putting ourselves down? Instead, I have opted for forgiveness of myself and turned my focus not on the mistakes and bad choices I have made, but on the positive actions I can now do instead.
You can read Pema Chodron's article here: