CHRISTINE ARYLO: Would you ever say to your friend...
Don't love yourself, that's selfish!
Just stay with the jerk, you'll get used to him.
You really sucked at that.
You're not worth spending time with.

Hello! Of course not!!

We would never say crazy stuff like that to the friends we love, but we say words like this to ourselves all the time. In fact, we often treat ourselves in ways that we would never treat a friend. So do yourself a favor this month, and make yourself the promise of becoming a friend - a great friend - to the most important person in your life, YOU!

To help you in your quest to become your own BFF, I triple dog dare you to take both this truth and these three dares to heart, and put them into action in your life today:

Truth:
Every relationships you have is a direct reflection of the relationship you have with yourself, so if it's great friendships you want, you must develop a great relationship with M-E!

Dares:
Take a comparison diet. Every time you compare yourself to another woman, to who you 'should' be, used to be or might be, it's like biting a poison apple - you poison your self-image of yourself. Would you ever give a friend a poison apple? No way! So stop treating yourself like an enemy, and start loving YOU. Go on a comparison diet. Every time you start to think or say a comparison, STOP! And instead say something great about yourself. Remember, diets are all about changing habits. The habit to change here is take comparison away and replace it with celebrating and loving who you are right now. And the great thing about this diet, you'll never go hungry and you can eat chocolate! And this is a great diet to do with friends. Tell your girlfriends about it and ask them to do it with you.

Date yourself. The fastest way to becoming your own best friend is to spend time with her, lots of it. You'll learn more about yourself than you ever knew. One of the hardest things for people to do is to be truly alone with themselves - no blackberries, phone calls or falling asleep. Just be with YOU! Here are a few quick tips on how:

o1 Write down three things you would love to do and set a date to do them. Prepare for the date like you would if someone was picking you up. Look your best. Feel your best.

• When you go on the date, alone, be with yourself completely. Treat yourself like you would expect a date to treat you. How would you feel if they started texting during dinner?

• Talk to yourself, out loud or silently. Notice what you like, dislike. Smile at your quirks.

• Do the little things that are going to make you happy. Buy dessert and share it with yourself. Pay extra for a better seat.

• Come home, put your favorite jammies on, make some tea and turn on some soul happy music. (recommended India Arie)

• Journal about your date. What did you love? What did you learn?

• Go to sleep happy knowing that you really are a fantastic woman!

Discover What You Love About You ~ Do the Love Serenade. Begin saying out loud all the reasons you love you. "I love me because..." or "What I love about me is..." Say it, proclaim it, even sing it. Keep going until you just can't think of anything else, but really push yourself to keep going. Once you've said them aloud, write all your reason on a piece of paper, and post the list somewhere you see it everyday.