1. Ms. Heather Reinhardt, at what point did you realize that your life’s purpose was to help others to love themselves?
Five years ago, after a breakup from a man I thought I was going to marry, I went on a very personal, soul searching journey specifically to understand myself, to find who I was and most importantly, who I wanted to become. Little did I know it at the time, but I was about to fall in love – with myself. I did so much self-reflection that I should have invested in a mirror company! I analyzed every step that I had ever taken along with each choice that I had ever made that lead me to where I was. I realized that some of the things I had done were not conscious choices, rather they were things that society/family/friends expected of me. I wanted to change that. So, I began making very different, conscious choices. I took on the mantra, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.” I fully grasped that if I wanted to live my best life, it was up to me and the choices I made. With this mantra and making strong choices, I began to love myself.
A few years into my self-love journey, it dawned on me that if everyone knew how to love themselves, the world would be a very different place. I decided to share my stories –including the breakdowns that I had so that I could breakthrough. In sharing these stories and examples of how I created a life filled with self-love, I aim to inspire people that they, too, can do they work on themselves. It requires massive amounts of courage to do the internal work, however, if I did it, so can anyone else that has the desire to live a better life. People who love themselves make better choices and better choices change the world.
2. Ms. Reinhardt, how would you define self-love in your own words?
Self-love is the ultimate knowing of one’s self. When you have self-love, you completely and utterly know your identity, your purpose, your reason for existing. Self-love is making conscious choices that propel your life forward in the direction you wish to go.
3. Ms. Reinhardt, what steps do you recommend someone deprived of sleep to take in order to love themselves? If someone loves himself or herself, they would love taking care of their sleep time to for optimum health & well-being. Would you consider that lack of sleep is a self-esteem issue?
Most people have FOMO while I have FOMS (fear of missing sleep). I absolutely love my night routine. I start to wind down around 9:30pm, take a bath with lavender oil, read a book, and fall asleep soon thereafter. Seriously, I love my sleep ritual almost as much as I love my morning ritual. I know for a fact that I function at my best when I have a full eight hours of sleep. The things I want to do in my life and create for the world require me to be in tip-top shape – mentally/physically/emotionally. So, I made a strong choice to go to bed every night at 10:30pm and wake at 6:30am. I sometimes make the exception of going to bed a little later if I have an evening event or something of importance going on, however, I find if I go to sleep past midnight, my body knows when it’s 6:30am and gets up anyway… and, on those days, I am not at my best.
I think sleep deprivation is one of two things – it could stem from a medical condition (which should be treated by a doctor, not an article on self-love!) or simply not having your priorities in order (this does not include new parents!). Taking care of yourself – creating optimum health & well-being – should be your number one priority, which includes proper sleep, eating clean, exercising frequently and having some sort of emotional practice – whether it’s therapy or meditation – finding a way to nurture your emotions is one of the important keys to an overall balanced life. I have no doubt about it that people who have their physical, mental, and emotional selves in tip-top shape love themselves. They’ve made the choice to make themselves a priority.
Could sleep deprivation be a self-esteem issue? I think each case is different but it’s certainly a possibility. Self-esteem falls into the self-love bubble (along with self-worth and self-respect). If you’re staying up late with no real intention (meaning that you’re not working late or dealing with important issues), then what exactly are you doing in that time? I think it’s certainly a question worth analyzing that could relate to someone’s self-esteem. I do believe that when you love yourself, your self-esteem, self-worth and self-respect skyrocket.
The step I recommend is to look at the situation you’ve created for yourself (no one is choosing your sleep patterns except you). Analyze your patterns. Keep a sleep diary, logging the hours you go to bed and when you wake. If you’re not happy with the results (or feeling drained), implement some changes one step at a time. Also, be mindful of what you’re eating, the caffeine you’re consuming, and your exercise habits. Again, of these contribute to your overall wellbeing. Fitting that this is on Thrive as Arianna Huffington has an entire brand on the importance of sleep. She speaks of turning off all electronics at a certain hour so that they’re not distracting, which I also encourage.
I have a few close friends who often don’t get a lot of sleep due to their work-loads and schedules, so this is a frequently discussed topic for me. In my definition of self-love – the ultimate knowing of one’s self – you innately know what your body needs and how much you can handle throughout your day. For those friends that I’ve had this conversation with, most of the time, they’ve taken on too much at work, thinking it will help their careers in the long run. But, there’s not much of a long run if you’re not taking care of your body right now. Treat yourself – especially your mind and body – with utmost respect and love, and it will respect and love you back.
“Open Up, Everything’s Waiting For You.” – Fleetwood Mac
Long before Heather Reinhardt left Atlanta to pursue her destiny in 2008, she is what many would have called an active daydreamer. In reality, she is an expert manifestationalist.
In her younger years, Ms. Reinhardt was a dancer and singer performing across the country in a variety of venues, most notably, Carnegie Hall. She knew she had a strong voice – both audibly and intuitionally – which would later guide her as she began writing her upcoming book, Go LOVE Yourself.
After college, Heather knew her future was to embark on a most unorthodox path. She took the approach of making a vision board for her life, complete with Monopoly money and a picture of the Hollywood sign. Six weeks later, she found herself living in a house just a thousand yards away from the Hollywood sign.
Heather has lived many lives in Hollywood over the last decade, including being active in make-up and beauty, writing, development, and producing, while working alongside many notable industry mentors, who all have been an inspiration on Heather’s path. Learning the nuances of personal growth combined with an acute sense of marketing and production, she has come to a place of going her own way.
As the Self-Love Aficionado, Heather really loves herself. And, she wants you to really love yourself, too. Her mission is to make sure as many people as possible have the proper tools to cultivate self-love by writing and speaking about her personal stories.
Active not only in project development, writing and producing, Heather also maintains her beauty notoriety by contributing to Eat.Drink.Shrink. and Stylisted. You can find her inspirational writings on Thrive Global, Elite Daily, VoyageLA and Huffington Post contributor. She is also a member of The International Association of Professional Women and the Women’s National Book Association.