One of the most powerful lessons in my life was the awareness that loving myself is very key to my happiness and emotional well-being. It is a fact that many people are not even aware that loving ourselves is a powerful force in our lives and can be used to remedy many heartaches and pain. It gives us clarity of mind and motivation to be a better person and achieve greater things for ourselves, our mind, and our body.
Loving yourself is not to be confused with being self-centered or narcissistic which basically means being engrossed with oneself and one's own affairs. It is not about being egoistical and conceited. There is a huge difference between these two.
You need to know that when you love yourself you will feel connected with the inner beautiful person that you are inside. We are all a being of light but that light will not be bright if you fail to spark it and give it life. To give it life is to give it love and when love flows within you, you will begin the process of loving yourself.
It is not easy to know when you do not love yourself. We all presume that we do, we think its a given. And yet, why are there so many people who allow themselves to lose their power and self-destruct themselves. Understand this, when you do not love yourself enough or love yourself first, you give permission for negative or unhappy things to happen to you.
Several symptoms to look out for when you need to love yourself more:
* When you stay in an abusive relationship and continue to accept abuse and hostility. You mistake this to be heroic act to safeguard the family unit, when in reality you are just being insecured. Because you don't love yourself enough you disallow yourself to see things for what they really are.
* When you solve your problems by taking drugs, or getting yourself drunk. When you do not love yourself enough, you allow for these self-abuses for they are nothing more than just that. Be aware that your lack of self-love leads you to self-destruction.
* When you think you are on the edge and deserve to die and you devise ways to kill yourself. If you understand about karma, suicide is against the law of the universe. It is not your time yet. Learn to love yourself and you will see the solutions.
* When you get to be fat and ugly and you don't like how you feel about it. If you love yourself well enough, your appearance and health will be important to you. When you begin to love yourself you will begin to respect your body and your health.
Understand this, your soul is sacred, honour it. Once you know how to love yourself and love yourself first, you will be guided to make the right decisions, take responsibility for your life, achieve clarity of mind and peace of heart.
"You can explore the universe looking for somebody who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and you will not find that person anywhere.? - Anonymous quote.
It has nothing to do with not loving other people or not taking responsibility or making sacrifices for others. Your responsibilities towards other do not change. What needs to change is your attitude and responsibily to yourself - if you love yourself only then you will truly learn how to love other people. what you truly breed, you will beget the benefits of that love. Make daily affirmation that you love yourself.
As the sun rose, it grew hot. The gardener decided to get a glass of cool water for refreshment.
In the hall on his way to the kitchen, he caught his reflection in a mirror. He was stunned and unhappy to see his disheveled hair, grimy clothes, and sweaty face.
Forgetting about his drink, the gardener rushed to the kitchen faucet, wet a dishtowel, and returned to the mirror, swiping as vigorously as he had applied himself to his gardening earlier. He cleaned and cleaned that mirror, but it still showed him as dirty and unkempt.
He returned armed with a vinegar solution and new towels, but his reflection did not improve even after another thorough cleansing.
Suddenly he had what he thought was a brilliant insight. "I'll simply change the mirror. That ought to do the trick."
He yanked that mirror off the wall, and went to the attic to look for another one. When he found it, he put it on the old mirror's place and polished it until it was gleaming and spotless.
To his dismay, however, his reflection did not improve, and now had the added dust from the attic.
"What's going on here!" he cried. "I even changed mirrors, yet my reflection doesn't get better. What's wrong with that darn mirror?"
This simple parable makes it easy, of course, to spot the diligent gardener's real problem. If he doesn't like his reflection, he needs to take a shower, not switch the looking glass.
Yet when it comes to our own reflections, many of us behave exactly like the diligent gardener. We look outward and rail at the mirror instead of inward. Indeed, we blame anyone and anything except ourselves for the misery, pain, ill health, and general lack in our lives.
A wise teacher named Jesus once discussed this very human tendency to look outward and fixate on others' problems instead of looking at and within self to solve our own. We do this as individuals, and we do this collectively, rarely realizing that our bodies, our lives, and our world are simply mirrors that reflect who we really are right back to us.
Scary thought, isn't it? Considering the state of the world today, that reflection can at first seem a hopeless mess. We see (and often experience) violence, hatred, injustice, poverty, intimidation, dehumanization, pollution, tyranny. How in the world can I ever make a difference in all of that?
Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Look past the mirror and connect the spiritual dots. Maybe--just maybe--this world collectively and our lives individually are merely reflecting back to us what's going on within ourselves that we would prefer to ignore. In other words, if we change something within ourselves for the better, we may just change the world for the better, too.
It's not such a tall order after all. By embracing the mirror's message instead of ignoring it, we can start the self-change ball rolling. Should we care to pay attention to it, the reflection tells us that what's going on within us can be summed up simply as lack of love.
Despite our protestations to the contrary, we do not feel loved, even surrounded by our families or within a relationship. Nor do we feel especially loving. We may even suspect that loving our neighbors is for chumps or dupes, even if we dare not voice that thought aloud.
If we want to feel and experience the changes we hope that love can make in our lives, and if we don't want to be made fools of us, then it's time to wise up about love. It always starts with and within self. We cannot give to others what we have not claimed first for ourselves, love included.
What keeps us from claiming love for ourselves? In two words: self-judgment. Once we understand the deeper nature of love and how self-judgment blocks and hampers love, we will have better insight into how the reflection helps us find the ways we are judging ourselves instead of loving ourselves.
No longer scary or hopeless, the reflection is now part of the solution.
Self-love, then, and ultimately a more loving world are possible by freeing ourselves from our self-judgments. This is by no means hopeless, yet it is at once both simple and difficult, thanks to the fears and lies about love that surround us and make it too terrifying to stop blaming the mirror and ignoring the reflection.
Both Noraini Maskuri & Candace Talmadge are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Noraini Maskuri has sinced written about articles on various topics from Network Marketing, Recipes and Family Concerns. Noraini Maskuri is an avid student of inner empowerment, healing and motivation, has a 20-year advertising experience and now runs an online business. You will be pleased to find more heartfelt wisdom and useful tips on self-empowerment at her site: htt. Noraini Maskuri's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.
Candace Talmadge has sinced written about articles on various topics from Engagement Rings, Mentoring and Web Development. Candace (C.L.) Talmadge is the author of the epic fantasy series and a political columnist syndicated by. Candace Talmadge's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.