Self-Respect

This is your card reading for Thursday, January 14th/16.  Your card flipped out of the 'Mary, Queen of Angels' card deck, authored by Doreen Virtue.  Your card is 'Self-Respect', and Doreen's message for the card is this:
"I honor and love myself through my healthful actions.
Mother Mary deeply cares for you, your welfare, and your happiness.  She asks you to respect yourself enough to take good care of yourself.  Remember that you're God's child and creation.  By respecting yourself, you are honoring God.
The answer to your present question lies within another question:  Which path would be most respectful of me and make me feel the best about myself?
Self-respect increases when your actions are aligned with your true belief.  This card asks you to stop doing anything that makes you feel ashamed or guilty, and to focus all of your attention upon that which makes you proud to be YOU."

My message for you today is this:
While I prefer to reference that which many call 'God', as 'Creator' or 'the Divine'---due to all of the connotations that humanity has placed upon the moniker 'God'---I passionately share in Doreen's message for this card!  When you honour yourself, you honour the Divine and all that has been uniquely gifted to you to express out into the world.  
Synchronistically, last night I watched a video on the astrological forecast for Sagittarius in 2016 that had been recommended to me by a dear friend, whose birth sign is Sagittarius, like me (youtube...Karma2Dharma Astrology).  In the video, she spoke emphatically to the absolute importance of really delving into and embracing 'who' you came here to be, and what your TRUTH is---regardless of what others may have cast upon you as your truth. This requires that you hold respect for yourself and your feelings, and that you constantly 'check in' with what feels 'right' to you.  Resolve to be true to yourself and to your inner guidance, regardless of whether or not others 'understand' your motivation or point of view, she advised.  
I have spoken here of how I only came out of the psychic closet (well...I was lovingly 'pushed' out of the closet, actually, by my dear friend, Melanie) a few years ago, even though I have been on the path of developing my psychic gifts for close to two decades now.  Many people close to me were told that I was attending 'Personal Development Seminars' and the like (if I shared at all that what I was 'up to'), when I was really studying Shamanism; Reiki; card reading and working with the Angelic Realm and Archangels; drumming circles and sound therapy; the Akashic Records (where I felt that I had 'come home') and other metaphysical modalities and learnings; and also voraciously reading that which resonated with me at the time in my psychic development.  While I could get away with that in the past---the vibration of 2016 will not allow us to be anything but authentic and to respect all that we are and came here to be.  When you take on the perspective that Mother Mary shares with us in the message today, that 'By respecting yourself, you are honoring God."...doesn't that give you the fortitude and strength to step onto the path of authenticity?  To really tapping in, honestly, to what your Soul is saying to you? 
If others would have you feel as though, by respecting yourself, you are not respecting them, then I would say that you have outgrown that relationship.  Bless it, and move on. 
Residing in self-respect is NOT confrontational in nature---quite the opposite.  As I alluded to in your reading yesterday---being 'reactionary' and confrontational is a sign that we have NOT been honoring ourselves and setting healthy boundaries and expectations about how we wish to be treated by others. There is a calm and a centeredness that you experience when you approach your life from a place of self-respect, because you are truly tapped in to the Divine within yourself.  Strive to reach for that. 
Blessed be...