Loving you, loving others
Thursday, February 18th 2010 @ 2:44 PM
“Love yourself first and everything falls into line” Lucille Ball
Love is a truly wonderful thing! It means so much to so many, yet thoughts of love invariably turn toward something or someone external to ourselves. Of course this is perfectly normal, and perfectly lovely, yet we rarely think, let alone practise, love for ourselves. However, learning to love, accept, and respect ourselves is fundamental to good health, inner happiness, and… loving others.
What do we mean by the term self-love?
Self-love is not self-love in a narcissistic or egotistical sort of way. Once we understand this, we can begin to fully appreciate the role that self-love plays with regard to our health and vitality. Dr Martin Israel’s words sum up self-love perfectly…
“Self-love - a love that we are instructed to afford our neighbours equally as ourselves. Once we can accept ourselves as we are and can love our life as we find it, we can move progressively from self-concern to concern for others”.
Self-love as a source of motivation
Your own self-love and self-respect largely determines your level of enthusiasm, self-motivation and self-care, i.e. the desire to want to take care of all aspects of yourself. Self-love is as much a “fuel” as is your food, and the oxygen you breathe. The appropriate amount of self-love and care gives each of us the necessary will, drive and motivation to be ourselves, and live a truly authentic life. The more you like yourself, accept yourself and respect yourself as a valuable and worthwhile person, the higher your self-confidence too. The more you feel you’re doing your best to be an excellent human being, the more positive and happy you’ll be, the more love you’ll give, and the more love you’ll attract into your life.
Give yourself a little love…
* Acknowledge your efforts and achievements - we always congratulate others, but rarely say to ourselves… “Hey, you did a good job today”! So, acknowledge you too.
* Be kind to yourself – always treat yourself, and speak to yourself just as you would do your best friend, lover or child. If you can practise this, and successfully do this on a daily basis, then you’re certain to give yourself the level of genuine love that you need and deserve.
* Trust and support yourself - if you can have confidence in your abilities and know that your dreams are there for a reason - to be lived - then you'll act with more confidence, more faith and more trust. Go for it!
* Do things that you love – just as you would do for another, love yourself and allow yourself to do things you love doing - the things that make you who you are. Indulge yourself – you are worth it!
* Love everything about yourself - this means flaws and all! Fall in love with every part of yourself, and if you find this very difficult, at least be compassionate yourself, and for the parts you don’t like!
