"How can anyone love you if you don't love yourself, and how can you love others if you don't love yourself?"
This used to be a problem for me--the concept of self-love---I
thought it was the antithesis of a spiritual attitude and behavior. And I
shied away from songs and concepts like "The Greatest Love of All"
which goes so far as to say that the greatest love is learning to love
oneself and the greatness which is inside each one of us.
But I
came to realize that all too often in our western society we make
everything so black and white and rigid: there is only one way to do or
believe something. This is "scarcity thinking" rather than a
"prosperity" or "abundance mentality". When viewing this subject
through the lens of a "prosperity mentality" I can see that there is a
healthy self-love which everyone must develop. For love is a driving
force of the Law of Attraction which is one of the Laws of the Universe
which enable us to be successful in relationships and all other aspects
of life.
So, how then do we begin on the path to this healthy self-love?
o
First we must ASK for it and in order to do this we have to BELIEVE
that we have the right to and deserve to do so. That means we have to
rid ourselves of any erroneous notions that we are somehow inherently
evil or bad. This was never stated in any Scripture; in fact the
opposite was stated: the fact that we are born noble and in the image
and likeness of the Creator, which is the source of all goodness.
o
Then, after we have ASKED and came to BELIEVE that we are essentially
good and deserve to love our own selves, we have to RECEIVE with
gratitude the blessings and bounties that have been bestowed upon us
from the Universe. We have to give thanks for our mind, body and spirit
and whatever particular characteristics and talents which have been
deposited within us. (A good exercise to assist us with this process is
to first inventory our individual characteristics; make three columns on
a paper and head the columns with the words, Mind, Body & Spirit;
then list under each one our personal special and unique attributes, as
well as the ones we share with others.)
o Then we demonstrate the
love that we are developing for ourselves by making noble goals to
further actualize and improve our unique personal characteristics (which
will be the subject of another article entitled "Power Goal Setting").