As people from across the globe get ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day this week, the topic of love seemed to be an obvious choice for this week’s blog post.
The true power of love starts with the self. Truly loving and caring for ourselves leads us to love life and empowers us to share this beautiful energy with others.
The Mistaken Identity of Self Love
What does it truly mean to love yourself? Contrary to what many believe, self-love is not about being arrogant, narcissistic or egotistical. It’s not about always putting yourself first at the expense of others. It is not about always getting your way. It is not about always winning. And it is not about only looking out for number one.
Self-love means to be in awe of the miracle of your existence. It means you accept yourself as you are in the knowing that the real you goes beyond the perceived dualities of the physical realm. Self-love means to be willing to receive as much as you are willing to give and do both equally. It’s about knowing your values and your boundaries and honouring them. It is about teaching others how to treat you by showing them how you treat yourself. It is about being kind to yourself, looking after your mind, your body and your spirit; it is about knowing you’re worth it, not because of what you have or what you look like or what others think of you, but because love is your birth right no matter what.
In short, self-love forms the foundation of the single, most important relationship you will ever have – the one with yourself. This is the foundation and prerequisite to truly loving others.
When you internalise your source of love, you no longer have to look outside of yourself to get the affection and support that you need. Instead, you become the primary source of the care and attention you need to grow and thrive. Most of us look at love as an external force, something that others give to us in return for our affection, loyalty and so on. This externalised view of love can cause problems, especially in situations where we aren’t receiving love back from the outside world. In these cases, we can end up angry, disappointed and bitter because we aren’t getting the love we need and feel that we deserve.
You Can Only Give That Which You Have
It is an obvious statement that you cannot give something that you do not possess, yet so many people desperately love others without having or giving love to themselves. It is little wonder that in time their reserves of love are exhausted and their relationships falter. To give love, you must first have love. To have love, look within and love yourself. Only then will you be able to truly love others for the pure joy of loving them. Give the love you wish to experience to yourself and you will find all your relationships transforming in miraculous ways
3 Ways to Begin a Self-Love Practice in Your Own Life
Be Grateful – Focus on the positive aspects in your life. When you take an inventory of the good things you have and the positive things that surround you, you start to ditch the baggage that holds you back from truly embracing who you really are.
Care For Your Body – Very often self-love or self-loathing manifests itself in how you take care of your body. Begin a self-love practice by paying attention to how you treat the only body you have. Giving yourself the gift of proper nutrition, exercise and rest is the best way to begin loving the person you are.
Practice Forgiveness – We all make mistakes at some point in our lives. But rather than criticising and judging yourself, learn to accept them as lessons that help us grow; many of us punish ourselves far more severely than anyone else ever could. Begin to show yourself compassion. When you forgive yourself, you begin to love yourself, and through that love, are able to show the same compassion to others.
Universal/Divine Love
There is a single, intelligent consciousness that pervades the entire Universe; an all knowing, all powerful, all loving formless energy that is present everywhere without the restrictions of space and time. It is the source of all Love. It is Love. When you know and understand the truth that you are one with the source of all Love – that your very essence is love, you will have discovered unconditional love for yourself and for everyone and everything around you.
When you know that you are connected to everything and everyone, you will know that you cannot possibly experience true love without first loving yourself. Only then will you have discovered the truth that self-love truly is the greatest love of all. This brings to mind the famous lyrics of one of the world’s best-selling music artists of all time, the late Whitney Houston:
‘’I found the greatest Love of all inside of me
The greatest love of all is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
Is the greatest love of all’’
Sending you all much love and light
Patrizia x
Patrizia Pisano 