Loving the Self
“As children of God we first take love from connecting with God, fill the self with love, and give this Godly love honestly… look at each one with a spiritual vision and interact with love. This is how true love grows and flourishes.”
Dadi Janki.
The person we spend most time with, is our self. It is the one relationship we need to invest with love. Love for oneself is a sign of wisdom and maturity. Loving the self is not an act of narcissism but an essential part of spiritual growth – if I do not appreciate the value of myself, even while being aware of aspects of personality that need to change, how will I ever be able to love and appreciate anyone else?
However, it requires understanding of who the self is to be able to bestow the kind of love that is needed. We are beings of consciousness, not the bodies we inhabit. We have lived more than one lifetime, and the accumulation of all our experiences is manifest in what we are expressing now. We have developed habits of reaction to hurt and trauma, that weaken us, but in essence we are beings of love, power, peace, and joy. Becoming aware of the soul, we become aware of both our original, innate qualities of goodness and love, and what we have acquired that is false. With meditation and regular spiritual study, our spiritual power increases, and our limited understanding of falsely thinking ‘I am a perishable body’ finishes. I, the soul, a being of light, use the mind to stay in peace and live life in the best way possible. With these good wishes for the self, love emerges in my thoughts, words, and actions.
Love is the energy that drives the universe. When we receive love, we grow and flourish and begin to give the best of ourselves. The practical form of love is respect. Respect means accepting that each individual is unique and different and has something important and valuable to contribute. Spiritual love has great power. Whatever is spoken with love and respect is free from selfishness and negativity, and has a powerful effect on others. Words spoken out of love can bring about change in myself and others.
Love has a connection with the heart. When we speak about love, we always put our hand on the heart, not on the head. This reminds us to love ourselves from the heart before acting, and then perform good actions with our hands. We need to build and base our self-esteem on spiritual values, not on achievements or other people’s opinions. Negative and harsh thoughts about the self weaken us and make us vulnerable to more hurt, or worse, to the wounding of others. Many of us establish relationships to acquire love, respect, and acceptance, without realising that our role is to give, not get. When our expectations are not fulfilled, we try to change people, which means we are not providing the acceptance we ourselves are in search of. Our disappointment turns to dissatisfaction and we create an atmosphere lacking in love and consequently our relationships deteriorate. In a world where everyone is forming relationships based on acquiring, and with a lack of self-esteem and self-love, it is unsurprising that relationships are breaking down and families are breaking up. It is time to explore the value of knowing and loving the self, through meditation and spiritual practices.
