Self-Love?

Here are two perspectives on self-love.

Spiritual guidance tells us that we can only love others to the degree that we love ourselves. Interestingly enough, self-love is apparently one of the hardest hurdles for most of us to clear. It may help you to learn that self-love can be approached in two different ways.

The first is from the perspective of the personality. Our personalities know only conditional love. This translates into, "I love myself when I meet my own expectations of what it means to be loveable." While we meet the grade in some ways, invariably we fail in others and as a result, we withhold from ourselves the

unconditional love we all deserve as a birthright.

We can work on self-love at the personality level by letting go of judgment. Become an impartial witness to yourself and allow whatever is happening to be, without criticism. We always do our best and we can learn to realize that that's enough.

Fortunately, our souls offer another possibility for self-love.  Our souls ARE love. At the soul level, we don't need to learn to love ourselves because we are love already. Our challenge is to open to the love that exists as our essence. This is easier said than done, of course. It takes conscious practice and awareness

to uncover the innate love at the core of our being. Still, set the intention and you will move closer.

In quiet moments, close your eyes and imagine a radiant light of love burning brightly inside you. Know that you are formed of the love that is the ground of all creation.

INSPIRATION

"I understand that my love for myself is the greatest possession I will ever have. Love for myself comes into being only when I accept and experience my feelings as they are, at this very moment, both pleasant and unpleasant. As I welcome my painful self, it heals. Loving myself provides the power for transformation." - John Ruskan

"The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed." 

-- Krishnamurti