INSPIRATIONAL STORIES BY GULNARA OMAR

SHOW THE WORLD HOW TO MAKE YOU HAPPY

• I was walking by the flower shop a few days ago and saw beautiful tulips of different colors. I stopped and stepped closer toward the bucket of fresh pink tulips. I felt that they were calling my name: “Hey Gulnara, come closer, smell me, bring me home with you, I know you love beauty, I promise to draw even more beauty into your life and uplift your spirit every time you glance at me.” – whispered one pale pink tulip, sticking out tall from the bucket.

• A few minutes later, I was walking home with a bouquet of pink tulips in my hand wrapped into a brown craft paper. As I was trimming the stems and placing the flowers into a vase, I felt so happy. I thought to myself: “for years I was walking by flower shops, and each time different flowers were calling me. Sometimes they were roses, other times daisies or peonies, I would walk by with the hope in my heart that someone else, someday would bring or send me a huge bouquet of flowers as an expression of love, or because they would know that flowers make me happy.

• A few years ago, I was passing by a flower shop and at that this time yellow roses were calling for me. That day, I decided to stop waiting and hoping that someone else would bring me flowers. I went ahead and bought them for myself. That was the day when I showed myself self-love with action.

• I loved love flowers, ever since I was little. Flowers is the first thing I notice wherever I go. Why couldn’t I buy them for myself before, I asked myself?

• I guess I was so mistaken thinking that if people loved me, they would give me what I want and what I like. What I forgot is that one of the most important people who should show me LOVE is actually ME.

• You probably heard the saying that love is not a noun it is a verb.

I have a question for you: if love is an action, then how many small or significant action steps do you take daily to show yourself love and appreciation?

• The day when I bought myself yellow roses, was the day when I first SHOWED myself that I deserved to be loved and to be surrounded by beauty. Now, if the flowers call upon me in the flower shop, I no longer walk away hoping that someone else will bring them to me, I directly go and buy them. Sometimes it’s a big glamorous bouquet, sometimes it’s a tiny and simple bunch of wildflowers, and there were days when I would buy just one flower. It’s not the number of flowers or the grandness of the bouquet that make me happy. It’s the fact that I bought them for myself and enriched my life with natural beauty …

• If you love flowers, go and buy them for yourself. We mostly use flowers when we celebrate. You don’t need a special or particular reason to have flowers.

• No matter how challenging or puzzling your life might seem to your right now, please know that celebrating YOU and your life is a good enough reason!

• Explore yourself, get to know what you love and find a way to give it to yourself, be it a flower, a book, a dinner, or a course that you always wanted to obtain a new skill. You are responsible for discovering your authentic wants, the things that expand you and make you stronger.

• We teach people how to love us. When you show the world what you love by giving it to yourself, there is a very high chance that the world will follow your example and start showing you more love and appreciation …

With love,

Gulnara Omar.